Switching CV joints when repacking

[LifterEyes]

I came upon this article, http://www.rennlist.com/techarticles/944Constant%20VelocityJoint.htm, which mentions switching the CV joints from "left to right" when doing maintenance to even the wear.

This is under the "What maintenance do CV joints require?" section of the article.

I'm not exactly sure what this means, to switch the whole axle assembly to the other side?

If so, does anyone have any thoughts to about if this would be a good idea?

[jmancool]

I swapped my CV joints from side to side because the drive side had wear and there was a slight vibration on hard acceleration. Once I swapped the joints over (cleaned and repacked also), no vibration. So from my experience, it works. Note - you can't simply swap the half shaft on some models as the half shafts are different lenghts.

[LifterEyes]

Thanks for your post, jmancool.

I'm still a little confused as to what they mean when they say from "left to Right."

From your description I'm picturing that the inboard left (Looking from rear of car) CV joint on the transaxle moves to the right side of the transaxle and the CV joint at the left wheel moves to the right wheel but the axle shafts themselves stay on their original sides.

Sound right or way off?

[SuperXRAY]

When I spoke with the local shop in this area, Walts Service, they mentioned this same procedure. The cars that have identical-length half-shafts they said to just swap them from the left side of the car to the right, and the right side to the left side. He said they tend to wear in one direction only because not many people drive in reverse. If one or both tick in forward, then they are swapped, they will only tick in reverse, which is quite acceptable.

So yes, I *assume* jmancool means just that. Please excuse me if I am wrong.

[JRMock]

What want to do, is change the direction of rotation.

• Mark the CV Joint at the wheel, (so you'll remember which side is which after they roll around on the ground)
  
• Remove entire axle assembly
  
• Re-install axle assembly with the marked CV joint to the transaxle
  
• Repeat for the other side of the car.

ciao,
JM

[Rasta Monsta]

There are 8 positions with 8 different wear areas. . .you can change inboard/outboard, as well as rotational direction.

[LifterEyes]

Hey guys,

Are there any writeups or procedures floating around the internet that show a step by step process for repacking the CV Joints?

[TibetanT]

LifterEyes:

Try Google search engine. If you enter "repacking CV joints" and hit return/enter or click on Go, you will be surprised by how many hits you get for this procedure.

[TibetanT]

This is one of the first hits you should see:


http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/susp_whls_brake_steer/CVjointoverhaul.html

[LifterEyes]

Thanks. I just wasn't sure if the procedure for repacking CV Joints would need to have 944 specific directions.

My 944 has a single "Thunk" that comes from the passenger side when I make a hard turn in, what seems to be both, left and right hand turns. I've heard people say the sign of a bad CV joint is one that makes a "Clicking" sound. Is this clicking typically continuous?

[TSNAPCRACKLEPOP]

i just switched mine around, and discovered in the process that one of the cages was cracked, and fell apart on disassembly for cleaning. I put a bearing on from an early 944 (drivers side axle is too short!) as my boots were good. Now it just clunks (yes CLUNK , not click , thats what american front wheel drive cars do) when I am off the throttle. As I narrowly avoided bad breakage with the previously broken cage, I am saving up for new cv joints. It makes so much noise, and vibrates at high speed when i am off throttle , i think if that if it ever broke loose at high speed, I would definitely be stranded at the least. Note that my motto below is to "stop fixing something before you break something else" I dont want to get into tranny housings and hubs , gas tanks, exhaust systems, fuel pumps, wheels, tires, etc unnecessarily, that would cost even MORE money. I will probably never have to buy them again.