Tom in Austin

All else being equal, which axle, left or right, would you expect to have more wear? I've heard there's an exhaust pipe close to the inner CV on one side and maybe that added heat tends to lead to greater wear?

Mike Frye

Which one do you use more?

JHowell37

Driver's side wears more in my experience. Or you could say the side that most often has power going through it on an open diff. In most cases, that's the side with the ring gear.

Mike Frye

OK,

Not trying to be a d!ck here, but would you ever do something to one side that you wouldn't do for the other side?

I'd treat them as equal for any service. Just like break pads. Do anything to one and the other needs it too.

Why do you ask?

LeRox

Here's what happened to mine (passenger side) when making a left turn getting on the throttle.

And the second pic is what was left of the cv guts...

Tom in Austin

Yikes!

Tom in Austin

Bump - any other theories? I bought a new axle and plan to put it on the side that is likely to be the more worn and then rebuild the other one ...

Cannot take the car out of service long enough to take out both axles and tear them down to see which is more worn, so will pick one side to get the new one.

SeanR

If i were to guess, I'd say passenger side. Reason being, most everyone takes left hand turns faster than right hand turns and that is the wheel that has the most planted at that time.

But since I'm not guessing, they both get equal use so do whatever makes you feel better.

Dave928S

I've just had a look at mine and can't see that one side would necessarily get more heat than the other.

I also can't think of any compelling argument for one side being more likely to wear than the other ... apart from maybe your passenger side getting more road shock from the usually rougher and broken edges to country roads. I've noticed on quite a few cars that offside suspension components and wheel bearings often tend to be the ones that wear/fail first, because they get more of a hammering.

pmichaelg

I recently rx’d some related advice that when you replace the CV boots, to swap the axles. This will balance our the wear – sort of like rotating tires I suppose. For the future, I suspect this would resolve your question. Since you have a new axle, perhaps not as much…

Mrmerlin

hot setup replace both of the axles.
This is depending on miles if you have over say 80K then new axles are better than refilled with fresh grease originals.
Yes it costs more to do it this way,
BUT you wont be looking at them for a long time unless the CV bolts come loose.
Last set I did cost about 380.00 a piece.
If you dont like this idea then swapping them side to side has a way of restoring the tighteness of new parts as the CVs will be riding in unused areas of the bearing surfaces though the ball;s may have some wear.
Follow the WSM for CV disassembly instructions,
there are grooves on the CV outer race that indicate orientation to the axle

NoVector

Wow, Tom. Everyday there's a new model laying across your car. Any chance you could just have a model always there and stream video?

FWIW - I'd buy a rebuilt from Roger and do them both at the same time and be done with it. Based on your top end refresh I saw, you're not the kind of guy who's going to half-*** it; meaning, you're going to do a very thorough job and if you had to put a time-clock on your labor, it'd probably be cheaper to buy rebuilt. My $.02 Take care / Bruce

jacal128

Both of mine have had the passenger side boot torn, probably doesn't have anything to do with it but I am planning to rebuild both sides, kits already purchased.