Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
So you want to swap them from side to side? Is that just because they wear differently due to road pitch?
Glad you mentioned the vent on the diff ... I'm sure I would have found a way to spill gear oil everywhere.  |
The design of the CV joints has an outer "chase" an inner "spider" and a number of balls in a holder in between those parts. As the vehicle does most of it's travel in the forward direction the surfaces that make contact under that circumstance get worn the most. By swapping the axles from side to side you then put the lesser worn surfaces which where formerly only in contact when driving in reverse into position of now being in contact when driving forward.
In theory this would lead to longer axle life because you'd end up using both directional surfaces rather than just one. Of course swapping does nothing to aleviate the wear on the balls in the joint but they are pretty tough.
This wear issue is what makes rebuilt axles so undependable, usually the axle core is inspected and measured, if it's in spec they just clean, re-lube, and reboot it. If it's out of spec they regrind the chase and the spider to the next larger size ball, then clean, re-ball, re-lube, and re-boot. The problem is that when the CV joint was originally manufactured the wear surfaces of the chase and the spider are hardened as are the balls, they don't harden the reground surfaces and the axles don't last nearly as long as a result. Now when you combine that functional flaw with Chinese/Mexican/who knows what third world quality control remanufactured axles have become a disposable wear item rather than what was originally a part that might last the life, in the Benz case, long life of the vehicle.
10-18-2010, 12:18 AM
Hybrid Mode
