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Date:         Fri, 28 Oct 1994 18:34:31 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         wabbott@townshend.Corp.Megatest.COM (William Abbott)
Subject:      Re: New CJVs: How stiff is TOO stiff?

Tobin, Sounds like that CV is WAY TOO stiff. Clean it up, take it back, explain and ask them to show you one that does move. Your bus has what, 100Hp, 100 foot-pounds of torque? Unless you're VERY skinny, 100 foot pounds it less than all of you hanging one foot out along the axle. Simply put, if you can't move the thing by hand, neither can your engine.

BTW, I get a sick feeling that the CV you bought once could be moved (and how else could it have been assembled) and its now stuck together with some kind of gunk OR IT RUSTED. So clean it off with a quart of Simple Green, spray it with WD40 and take it back.

A handy tool I came up with when I did all 4 CVs of my Rabbit one day (with my beloved brother's help, 8 hours from start to heading for the Pizza parlor with our very supportive wives. It was a great day and I hope to never repeat it. I pay other people to do this job now.) was some 8MM wing nuts. T he better hardware stores stock this kind of thing. My procedure on inner CVs was to install the boot first (on the axle- remember to put duct tape over the splines to keep them from cutting the boot), disassemble the CV, clean the parts, lightly grease with CV grease, assemble, tap it onto the axle with the axle clamped in the vise, THEN pack grease into the CV from the inside until it pokes through on the outside.

You can buy neat little funnels with a grease fitting on the spout that will pack the grease mechanicly, or you can scoop it out with your fingers and squish it through. I like squishing it.

Now comes the tricky part:

Take the previously cleaned 8mm star-head bolts and poke two or three of them through the boot flange and the CV, and use the wingnuts to hold them there. Now the stiffness of the boot holds the CV in the lined-up and assembled position while you fool around under the car with it!

First time I did this job, I got the second inner joint just about in place and I managed to allow it to turn more than 25 degrees or whatever the magic number is, and it disassembled itself, dumping the balls right onto the garage floor. This was a brand-new LOBRO (German) CV, so I just can't accept the "Tight tolerance, it'll wear in" story. (Like, for starters, where would the metal filings go? Once you've converted the grease to grinding compound, the wear WON'T STOP!)

Lots of luck! Bill


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