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So, another adventure to share... I'm out on the "road to town" testing my knock counter yesterday but it ended with a bang. Lucky I had enough speed to find a place to pull over as I had no power to the wheels (even though I have LSD). Wife tows me home after all my neighbors stop by for a chuckle.
The CV boot is all twisted up so I pull the left side half-shaft. I replaced that shaft assembly just two years ago. The inner CV has come apart and everything is captured in the boot and trans output stub. Nothing appears to be broken - just disassembled. Its still under warranty (2 years and I have only 3000 miles on it). Rock auto says no problem, send it back.
So then a little more inspecting and I find this half-*** repair to the inner CV. I've seen this once before but I "assumed" that any competent re-builder is going to swap on new CVs. But no, they "weld up" the worn tips on the knuckles and shape/smooth them down with a grinder. Looks like some one forgot the shield gas and then blew-off the inspection.
I guess I'l rebuild my old ones myself....Bruce
PS... I think this wearing of the knuckle (my term) is the reason we swap axle shafts side to side.
A quick search of this forum should turn up any number of bad experiences with Cardone. Toss what you have in the trash, invest in some better quality parts, unless you like the experience you've just had. Good luck!
I got 4 GKN Vanagon joints for around $45 each on close out, messy job but I doubt I'll have to touch them again besides greasing them once in a while.
Here's a long (old) thread on the subject...
I guess back then you could buy the whole half shaft assembly new for cheap. But now I think the best bet is to keep your axle shaft and assemble with new VW cv. There may be problems though due to mis match of the axle spline count and the VW cv spline count. So verify on that first....Bruce
I just took a screen shot of the ones I bought, after a price comparison at the time. They are a direct match for certain 944 axles, I forget the spline count but I was able to find the info readily with a search. Also had to buy boots separately, they're not expensive though. The provided Oiteker clamps were too small for the axles I had in my early NA so I got a few new ones from Belmetric that fit.
From another thread:
"The 25 spline axles started with ('87 turbo) chassis # 95HN151524" including S2. Before that transition they are all 33 spline, which is the type I got. Early NA cars with steel trailing arms used shorter axles but the joints are interchangeable with aluminum trailing arm pre-87 NAs and 86 951. I believe the 86 951 joints are beefier but I can't confirm. The Vanagon joints have larger ***** but less misalignment tolerance. Fine for a street car. Ironically the Vanagon guys swap to 944 joints for higher articulation for off-road builds, as they have smaller *****.
OK, good info on the Vanagon CVs. I love it when people share like that. But I have 25 spline shafts so I guess I'm looking for 951 CVs now.
I sent the rebuilt shaft back (I only had the one) and I now have both of my original axle shafts apart. A good thing too because the outer CVs have almost no wear at all, so I'm thinking I will re-boot and re-use those.
I didn't look much but I see Paragon has CV boots like the originals. Can anyone justify the higher cost of those? Could they maybe play a roll in keeping the axleshaft centered between the CVs? Or some other thing that I'm missing???... Bruce
04-14-2018, 02:29 PM
Cardone CV fail and a tow of shame
