bonus12

In another thread you guys helped me determine that I had a clicking cv joint on the passenger side. It's quiet about 90% of the time, so it's not horrible. I have read that you can flip a race and repack with grease to buy some time, maybe 5000 miles worth. What do you think of this and what about flipping the whole axle?

I think I'll go for it to save money, but any opinions would be hugely appreciated. Is this a tried and true method? My long term plan is to use O'Reilly units which have a good reputation and a limited lifetime warranty.

Some background: transmission mounts replaced 55,000 miles ago and driver side cv joints were replaced 25,000 miles ago.

Thanks a lot.

bonus12

Any other tips? I've read that new bolts are a good idea, to ensure they are clean and dry. Avoid loctite? Thanks again rennlist, a great forum.

KuHL 951

I bought at least 10K miles on my clicking 951 CV by buying a marinade injector big syringe), some CV grease, and injected it right into the joint through the boot. The boot never leaked. This was a true McGyver repair while on a long road trip but it worked better than I ever could have imagined. Hand-packing them is a miserable messy job.

bonus12

Wow, haha, I might try that because it's so easy. Mine's a 951, too, so I could hope for similar results! My cv joints might just be dry, after all.

You just pulled the boot back and pushed grease in all over the joint? You weren't worried about putting in too much?

I would dare to try this so any more info would be nice. Thanks, KuHL.

MAGK944

Any high-temp, high-pressure lubricant should work, iirc there are no specific specs in the manual. I have a can of this stuff that I've used in the past, I like it because it sprays as a liquid them sets as a grease once it gets in all the cavities: Zep Professional High Temp/Press

Dash01

Does that ZEP spray can come with a snorkle straw, like lithium grease or PB Blaster cans?

If so, or if the nozzle will accept a snorkle or can be switched with one that does, you could skip the syringe and just squirt this stuff into the boot.

And, OP, why not swap the CV joints from side to side? That way, the little ***** and cages now work against virtually virgin surfaces, worn only while in reverse. You may get lots more mileage out of those CV joints.

As for Locktite, why wouldn't you want to use that on the bolt threads?

bonus12

Dash, I like the idea of swapping cv joints. You just remove and switch the whole assembly by 180 degrees?

Also, if I go to pull the boot back, it's not fixed in there, is it? Thanks.

szabon

Yes, flip the cv around. I repacked my cv, and you could easily see where the ball joint was sticking, as it was pretty deep, so I bought a new one to replace it, and in the meantime flipped the cv joint so I could drive it. Then the new one got in, and I figured I would just see how long it will last with it flipped before I put the new one in there. That was about 2 oil changes ago, so 6k miles, and no issues. Definitely agree on rotating the cv joint to squeeze some life out of them.

V2Rocket

Maybe a month ago I had to replace my original axles with some spare used ones because they were clicking...had re-greased them twice since buying the car in 05.

Current axles are packed as full as can be, let's see how long they last...

That CV joint grease is some good stuff.

67King

Take it apart, take a die grinder with a polishing roll on it, smooth out the channels for the *****, clean very well, and re-assemble with new boots and grease. We sell a good grease called Hi Mol 20 designed specifically for CV joints, I'm sure there are comparable products from others.

Mueller944s2

They have CV grease at any autoparts store, I'd recommend it. As for locktite, I used it! Tired of my axles falling off

fejjj

All this hassle to save $70?

You can buy the Vanagon half shaft and it bolts straight up.

bonus12

1986 RWD MT vanagon axles are hard to find. I've searched a while and the best I could come up with for the vanagon axles was cv kits, like the 944 ones for sale. The empi ones are gone. I think the 944 community bought them out! So, I think the vanagon source has come and gone. Seems like the best choice these days is rebuilt, unless you want to spend a lot on GKN ($90 per cv if you build them yourself) or be dissapointed with cardone or something. Repacking them or flipping them seems like a pretty good strategy actually imho.

fejjj

Sorry to hear that!

I bought an EMPI for $60 about a year ago.

fejjj

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