chris951

You know you can buy the CV bolts at most shops that work on VWs. I started using the white out method when 3 bolts backed out on my passenger side tranny CV. It broke the other 3 bolts in the driveway so I got hella lucky. I think next time, I might just buy the whole axle assembly instead of messing with the nasty awful greasy mess of rebuilding the CVs.

Luis de Prat

That's what I meant by making sure of the quality. GKN makes CV joints for VWs that are about the same size as those for the 944, only they're about 1mm thinner.

I would get the new cheeshead bolts at the VW parts shop, but not the CV joints. Get those from a supplier that sells parts for Porsches.

asoduk

Using a quality grease like redline helps out too, but if you beat on these cars, they go through CV joints. New bolts are a must IMO and you should probably go drive after torquing and then recheck, THEN put paint on.
The job isn't all that messy if you know that you're getting into. Have some plastic grocery bags on hand to use on the CVs when you are messing with them. I always make the biggest mess while wrestling with the circle clips. If you don't want to look like a goober when you go out that night, wear some rubber gloves and use lots of degreaser before tackling any of this. I also find it very helpful to clean out the cheeseheads before trying to get them loose.

wrossing

Definitely clean out the cheeseheads to avoid stripping them out, I used brake cleaner and a tiny flat head screwdriver.

George D

I meant the factory cheesehead bolts. They are difficult to retq when you don't have a lift. The whiteout makes inspection much easier.

turkis_tii

So, I purchased a '89 944NA with 65,000 Calif. miles a few months ago. I plan to use as a street car with occasional autocross/HPDEs. The axles have +/- 1 cm. play in each direction and the clamps on the small ends of the boots are missing, so I got new GKN Löbro axles/cv's to replace.

BTW, in comparison with my e36 BMW: the axles have no lateral play at 170K miles. The Bentley manual indicates using red threadlocker on the splines, a specific weight of grease loaded onto each cv, and the boots are "burped" before tightening the boot clamps.

Question 1: Do any of these procedures apply to the 944?
Question 2: Should I replace the GKN grease that's in these new units with Redline or Swepco?
Question 3: This is probably the best time to replace the left-side transaxle seal that seems to be responsible for a slow leak. I've read the DIY on this and other sites, what's the skill level needed to do this job?