Dangit, disaster strikes.

[jkeyzer]

Kurt -

Geez, you're amazing.... You try to downplay your mechanical abilities and you broke and fixed a CV joint in the same weekend???

Sweet!

[Early_S_Man]

No, Kurt ... I was thinking about a bit more subtle message ... kind of a posthumous note left in a dresser drawer: 'Not to be opened until after my death' sort of thing.

[pbs911]

Glad to hear you are off terrorizing once again Kurt. Just take a look at that black mess of a CV you replaced and realize that the other 3 are probably in pretty much the same condition. Now that you know how simple of job it is, you may want to to cech the remaining 3. Woundn't want a Honda Civic laughing as it leaves you off the line b/c another CV failed.

[Matt Holcomb]

Kurt,

This happened to me a few weeks ago in a busy car park, although I managed to get the thing out of the car park and down the road a bit before it became undrivable.

What a pain in the ass! But I took the easy way out and gave my wrench $300 to fix the CV joints.


Matt Holcomb
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[5axis]

Kurt. I enjoy your exploits but please try and be safe about it. Warren is trying to politely get you to think about the want ifs??? A failed CV at speed could be a MOFO. I got my license at 16 and did not make it to 16 1/12 before getting a whooping from my Dad and learning how to replace U joints. I know your in that over crowded S hole of LA but get youself over the crest and let her rip all the way to Vegas. Hours of MPH-1?? will ease your pain. That or a few shots and a lap dance at Cheetahs

David 89 turbo cab

[Kurt B]

I think the burn out days are over. Actually, they are over. P cars hop..or mine did often enough, during these fast launches. That MUST be brutal on the CVs...I mean, they are suddenly carrying the torque from the transmission and the bouncing of the rear end laden with the engine and tranny!

I know CV joints going out can be a disaster, but the way they're designed and fit back in there, you're likely to be okay.

The area behind there, where they go, where the shocks hook on, the wheel etc and the torsion bars...what is that called? I mean the whole apparatus? Are these the trailing arms, and if not, what are the trailing arms?


I didn't have a torque wrench yesterday that fit allen heads, so they are not torqued to spec. Wayne's book gave the specs and suggested lowering the car to tighten to spec. I approximated by Torquing-the-hell-out-of them with a 7" Allen and a pair of thick rubber gloves.

I am not interested in racing as much merely because some guy in a fairly normal looking 300 zx beat the ever living ***** out of me. I mean, he didn't just inch ahead, he was blowing by me after his turbo kicked in. Some of that may be the fact that we were on a curve and I was only getting power when the traction went to the left side and when it went to the right, the cv was being blown asunder. Anyway, not only kicked my ass, but busted my car. Too f'ing funny.

There's the cliche, if you're an idiot then it is better to shut-the-Ef up rather than speak and remove all doubt (and no, I don't already mean that applies to me )
With all the fancy body work on this thing, it looks like one mean monster--I can just cruise around and LOOK super fast. I don't want to blow another one, so's I gotta keep a valium in the gas tank for a bit.

[Kurt B]

I'm sorry to belabor this, but this didn't make sense until I realized, the ricer blew past me AFTER my CV joint broke. I just didn't notice it was broken until I let off the gas and could hear the grinding--it just seemed like I was standing still, well, because I was no longer accelerating!

[Jack Olsen]

Kurt, I think the only cure for your nightly rice feeding frenzies is to get a roll bar in that thing and get you out on a track.



That said, here's a long aside:

The pictures of your torque-pulverized CV joint made me realize just how irresponsible I was being when Tyson and I were last at Willow Springs, in a tight contest with an M3. We started to get a knocking noise from the driver's side rear axle, but we decided to do one more session, since our best times were less than a second better than the M3, and he still had two afternoon sessions to catch up to us.

I went out, and started pushing the car pretty hard. The knocking sound seemed to be going away, and our last check of the rear axle showed the outter CV joint as loose, but still functioning.

I got a 1:36, but thought I could do a little better.

Half way through the next lap, the axle started making a pounding sound (I can't think of a better way to describe it) during right-hand turns. But I'd nailed the lap so well so far that I crossed my fingers and kept going -- knowing that I could conceivably loose the CV joint at any time.

Going into turn eight at Willow, my car is at about 6300 rpm in fifth. This is 130 mph with the tires I was running. Turn eight is a right-hand sweeper that you take at a sustained high speed. I kept my foot on it -- even with the pounding sound -- since letting up on the gas once you've committed to that turn is a sure way to lose it.

I made it through.

The problem turned out to be the e-brake sleeve banging into the rear rotor, and echoing up along the axle, producing a very CV-joint-in-distress-like sound. As it turned out, I wasn't in very great danger. But seeing the pictures of the shattered CV joint made me do the math in my head: 130 mph, hard right sweeper, 80% limited slip -- if I had lost the connection to the rear left wheel, the lsd would have thrown a lot of torque over to the rear right, and I don't think the car could have been controlled. My guess is that I probably would have rolled it at very high speed.

Scary. And a good reason to periodically check the condition of your CV joints. Having one side good just isn't enough.

Final time was a 135.3, though -- my personal best at that track.

[tight as a bull's ass]

sorry to be so harsh but maybe if you didnt abuse your car, it wouldn't break all the time....



Cheers!

[Kurt B]

Interesting consideration Jack. You may want to check them out. even though the problem is elsewhere. With the right grease to put back on, you can degrease them (use soap they say) really look at them and repack em. You can see where the wear is pretty readily.

I will also add a supposed clutch judder problem I had for a long long time. I got a new clutch, twice, and nothin'. I figured it was valves...welp, now I see it was the CV joint.

Don't ask me how this could be, but in 1st gear at really low speeds it would judder or kinda hop as you pressed the gas slowly.

Now it's tight. I suspect there was a lot of play in that thing back there.