Chwatson

So my driver's side, outside CV just started clicking. Seriously, I drove to school, parked it in the garage, left to drive the 2 miles home, and it started clicking out of nowhere. I pulled over and the boot is severed at the smallest of the accordion style folds (the very vital parts are at least SOMEWHAT covered).

Now, the 64,000 dollar question: what's the driveability factor, here? I'm concerned with two things: losing a CV while driving (and effectively having no power since I don't have a LSD (I had the bolts work loose once and the CV drop down about a year ago; that was scary)) or causing more damage to the car itself.

I found some Chinese cheapo rebuilt axles from Kragen for 76, plus a core. I'm at school/working constantly so I don't have time to repack them, and I figure if these are original axles, I might as well toss them since they're hopefully the last source of slack in the drivetrain following my clutch job. Here's the link: http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...pe=945&PTSet=A

I'd like a ball park figure of the miles I can drive it before swapping in the new axle. I'm confident I can keep it below 50 miles until Monday night when the parts come in. Will that work?

Unless anyone has decent axles near here....

PS it's an '83

quinnfiske

I had a click in one of mine and it went away on its own. I was expecting a catastrophy and it never happened. That was about 20K miles ago. I had no crack in any of the boots though.

Scootin159

Did about 4 autox (on slicks no less), 2 DE's, a drive to Ohio and back (about 5 hrs each way), plus a bunch of other driving on one. Of course the boots on mine were just fine, it only just started to click due to lowering the car, it was loud none the less.

KuHL 951

When those clicks turn to a deep scary clunk it's time to really worry about driveablity. I drove for months on an intermittent click. When I replaced them I could see the wear but nothing that I feel would have sheared off under normal driving.

Z-man

Replace. The clicking is probably caused by a broken up interior cage that keeps the bearings in place. You don't want to experience a complete failure of the CV...

-Z-man.

Pcar944

I've driven with cv's that need repacking (and were clicking) and gone a lot more then 50 miles on them so i'm pretty confidant that you'll be okay.

+1 on what Steve said.

yellowline

The original CVs on both sides of my car made noise like that. I regreased one side and they lasted 20k miles. The other side lasted 10k. I chose to replace them because my low-mile 944S wreck had a good set.

I'd take the time to regrease, then buy OEM when you can. Mark a line with Testor's red paint, have 6 bins ready to keep the ball bearings in order, and it really speeds up the job.

I love porsche

the clicking is caused by the grease drying out, if you take off the boot you will see exactly that. its definetly driveable, but you should plan on taking them apart and repacking them in the near future, then you wont have to worry about a click

t34418l31

i drove mine that were clicking for about 300 miles lol. and they were fine. replacing both cv boots on an axle only take about 2-3hours the first time you do it including removal and installation of the axle so its not too bad. once i repacked them they were all good again.

normansan

I drove on clicking CVs for over 700 miles (including a trip from LA to San Francisco) with no problems. I rebuilt them and sure enough the bearing housings were cracked. They are pretty easy to swap out on your own too.

jstand22

Like all the other guys said, you can drive pretty far on them, but when it starts clunking or sounding worse, swap them out. You can get a complete CV halfaxle for about $200 and once the car is jacked up it doesn't take long at all to swap one.

KuHL 951

Actually you can get the entire axle w/ CV's for $67 w/ a Lifetime Warranty. I've done this twice now and they are still going strong and one of the sets made it through a season of 944 Spec racing last year.

Scootin159

Autozone?

Cone_eater

Oreilly Auto parts. We have great ones. They are pretty cheap and have a low price guarantee with a lifetime warranty.

KuHL 951

Or Kragen through their website. Looks like they have raised their price $8 in the last month. I have used these on the 86 turbo with no issues but I swap the CV's over to the heavier shafts of the 951.
Same CV part numbers for both.

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...pe=945&PTSet=A