its worth it to spend money on your replacement axles
 

these axles went in last winter, and one popped a clamp and is already ripped, while the other side of the same axle is loose at the inner clamp.

Id estimate there are less than 10k miles on them, probably not that much more than 5-8k. They are not even a year old.

Driver side seems ok, but both are AC Cardone axles bought on clearance. I know, I was being super cheap and now im going to pay for it. Time to do all 4 boots now with quality rubber.

Anyone buy the boots from fastlane? any reviews on the febi or empi parts?

Your shocks look leaky too....

Already on top of that

Astoria
 

No personal experience but from what I've read, I'm going to use Astoria
boots when the time comes. The rubber is supposed to be better.

Where the New or rebuilt Axles and are they Mercedes Axles or some aftermarket axles?

if you still have your original axles, the Astoria Flexx kit is the WAY TO GO!
I've got the gun, and you can order the boots direct from astoria, or I can ship you the gun with the boots you'll need. the boots come with grease (not enough... but it does have some) I just toss the grease, and fill the can with 75W140 synthetic gear lube.
or, I can pull a set from a parts car, and clean and boot them for ya.
just lemme know if I can help.

ill check it out! thanks for the tip

They are both reman axles. Quality of ride and noise has been excellent. If I hadn't been under there related to the shock, I would never have noticed they were an issue. Weirdly there does appear to be no oil or grease in either boot, its certainly not leaking out in a way I would expect.

cool thanks!

do you consider the astoria flexx universal boot to be better than the empi or other brands available listed on pelican? Its better rubber?

Finding no lubricant present in those boots was important as well. I still believe finding a set on a wreck that appear to be original with the boots still in decent shape. That's if starting from the time of original difficulty.

Relubing them as well then installing is perhaps the best way to go. .Even rebooting original axles that are not constantly clunking. Otherwise to be sure it is going to be expensive. Off of gas cars may even be better as there is a chance of lower overall accumulated milage. New oem axles are just a little too pricy but are the optimum solution. That's if they are still manufactured by the original high quality suppliers.

This reversing of sides is also important when using used replacement or having current axles rebooted so mark them.

I also think grease with a good shot of heavy oil is superior to grease alone. Some of that depends on how the grease acts with time. That unfortunately is an unknown.

My issue with grease alone is from examination of failed front cv joints. I felt some of them failed because the grease hardened up and was displaced leaving the joints to run basically dry until failure occurred.

Are they worth the effort? My gut feeling is "no" but it is certainly worthwhile having a look. I bought a boot gun for about 100 euros but as I can't find the decent boots (as defined by vstech) I spent a bloody fortune watching the buggers split on me.

[WHINGE]

I think most of you know what I get up to - you probably know I've pulled most parts to pieces and rebuilt them => axles are without doubt the most frustrating things on planet W123. I mean they are so simple - so straight forward - and yet such a right royal pain in the arse. The last time I worked on W123 axles I was almost ready to go and get a second mortgage and a set of new ones from the dealer!

[/WHINGE]

I've installed cardone axles 2 times before and the ride has always been good. But the problem with both installs is the boots always started surface cracking after year two and the cans were loose at the seems in that the grease was slinging from it. Cardone uses grease, never oil.

If the cans are tight, than an Astoria reboot is good option, if not, than new cans would be needed. Which means the axle joints would need to be pressed out.

.

It does look like some wettness around the cans, have to investigate further later on, but it certainly wasn't what id call dry. Could be from the blown shocks though, or from the diff seal


Ive researched where ive got them via former threads

these are both axles new-

Top one I bought from parts geek, bottom one I bought from rock auto. Both came in AC Cardone reman boxes, but notice the difference in how the boots look. They seem to have undergone dramatic different reman processes, even down to using a different boot souce, and painting vs no paint.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/...40/axles-1.jpg

and installed, looks like I put the rock auto no warranty discount on the passenger side with the shiny boots, and its the one ripped-

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/...40/axles-2.jpg

I've had no ripped boots, or leaks since I switched to the astoria 3000 boots. VERY flexible, and nice thick rubber.

I'm just waiting for someone to break down and throw a Ford 8.8 with 4.10 gears under a w123.