Date:         Sun, 27 Apr 2014 17:43:50 -0400
Reply-To:     Ed McLean <email99@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ed McLean <email99@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject:      Re: CV Joints
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I apologize for the length of this note.

Everyone has their favorite greases so I thought I would share mine.  My
experience in servicing CV joints began 42 years ago with my 1972 BMW
2002tii which split a boot after two years and has continued through a
series or pre-1980 BMWs (78 euro 635csi, current 71 2800cs, and another tii)

as well as a couple of Vanagons, one since 1991 which now reached 320k
miles.  All have had Lobro CV joints.

My experience is that synthetic or semi-synthetic moly-enhanced CV joint
grease is by far superior to conventional moly-enhanced CV joint grease.  I
base this on experience with the Vanagon where I had CV joints that began
knocking while climbing over the Bighorn mountains on WY 14 east of Greybull

in early August of '96.  It was 97º and the '86 Westy was loaded with 4
people and camping equipment for 5 weeks and it took nearly full throttle to

climb at 25 mph.  About two thirds the way up the mountain the axle knocking

began.  I stopped but not seeing any oil or antifreeze running out, I
figured the CV joints had overheated due to the stress of the climb and the
lack of cooling wind because of the slow speed.  I figured if they were
going to fail there was nothing I could do about it so we might as well keep

going and at least I would be a little closer to the top when they let go.
I have never been so happy to crest any pass in all my travels.  The
knocking stopped as we started down and we continued on home to NC without
problem.  I purchased four new Lobro joints, greased them with conventional
moly CV joint grease and after  three years I serviced them again when I did

a Tiico conversion.  I found them significantly galled and pitted.  If fact,

they were worse than the ones that had acted up in '96.  I put the old ones
back in and greased them with Valvoline Semi-Synthetic DuraLube moly grease
and have been using them since.  The engine was changed to a 165hp Subaru in

2005 and has been driven aggressively since.  The joints were looked at but
not serviced because they were full of grease at the engine swap but they
were regreased in 2012 when I replaced the clutch and they looked better
than they did in '99.  Overall the joints have a little play in them now but

the pitting looked to be maybe a bit less aggressive and I'm willing to keep

them in service.  We may be traveling the same road again this fall so we'll

put them to the test them again.  I expect they will do fine.

In closing, the named grease had not dried out any over the 13 years and
150k miles and it protected the joints better than I had expected and
certainly better than the conventional moly grease i had used before.  Maybe

the quality of Lobro cv joints has changed over the years but I think the
protection is simply a result of the superior grease.  I'm sure there are
other premium moly greases available but the DuraLube is entirely adequate.

Of course, YMMV.