Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2016 00:38:16 -0700
Reply-To: Gene P <olgreywoof@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Gene P <olgreywoof@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: cv ball cage: inner or outer chamfer to axle?
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Yeah, I have an opinion. Your suspicion that it isn't all that important
is correct. I suffer OCD as much as anybody really needs to, and I spent
hours going over all the helpful hints and playing with new CVs before
installing them.
Van Cafe is always helpful but that particular note has gotten way too long
and hard to follow. I point to two points, both in the long paragraph that
is step 6. One an insertion that is not part of the original note:
"(CORRECTION -over the years these outer ball hubs have been manufactured
with different configurations of grooves and we have not found a
consistency to the way that they are assembled)."
So ... disregard the stuff about whether the groove goes toward or away
from the axle.
The other note, the end of step 6: "Additional note - New Lobro CV's will
have grooves on the outside of the outer ball hub that may not match this
description - we always install these without disassembling them. We do
follow this rule that the side with the greater chamfer always goes toward
the axle - it helps guide the splines to line up - we always find that the
wide part of the outer ball hub lines up with the narrow parts of the inner
ball hub, and vice versa.....but lines on the outside of that outer ball
hub - not important."
So ... Ignore all the stuff about grooves on the Outer ball hubs. The
point about the greater chamfer going toward the axle is about the Inner
ball hub (though that isn't clearly stated). Common sense here -- the
bevel on the part that contacts the axle helps it find its way on correctly.
Now about the cages ... look at one carefully and try to find anything that
is not symmetrical. Then look at a CV assembled and see how it works. The
balls are contained in the cage openings, but the working is done by their
free rotation on the inner and outer ball hubs. Those cage edges,
chamfered or not, are not doing anything. They don't rotate against
anything, or rest against anything -- how could it matter which direction
that edge faces if the cage is otherwise perfectly symmetrical and the edge
doesn't do anything?
Conclusion: pay very close attention, repeatedly, to the business of wide
to narrow, narrow to wide, on the inner and outer hubs. Ignore the stuff
about the cages and about the grooves on the outside of the outer hubs.
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