Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 23:34:47 +0000
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: vwbus@netbiz.net
Subject: CV Joints
Well answered for definite a couple nagging questions the other day,
looking at the 4 new Lobro CV's from Bus Depot, some things became
clear, the chamfer on the cage goes toward the driveshaft, as I
recall being correct but could never quite verify in photographic
evidence. I could not verify the direction of the inner race step,
as it is not present on later joints, but I feel it went toward the
thrust washer origionally. I also note a few things, genuine Lobro
no longer have cages that the balls "snap" into, the cage is a tight
sliding fit on the balls, sort of interesting. The one '88 joint has
the snap in ball cage unlike the later ones. After '93 the joints
are marked merely Germany, not W Germany and interesting sign of the
times. The real interesting thing is this though, the newest ('94)
joints have an almost "annodized" (if they were aluminum instead of
steel) grey coating to the outer races and are much more smoothly
machined. The intersting thing about that is that they are identical
matches to the generic "rebuilt" (which had to be brand new) joints I
had been buying from Transform for $39 each previously, which were
unmarked as to manufacturer but were marked Germany. However
Transform no longer sells them, sort of wonder though if the
Transfrom joints were Lobro rejects, have not had a problem with them
though. I also note this, because the literature with the Transform
joints had made a point about how the new "loose" cage was actually
an improvement and would reduce wear and extend joint life, implying
that an initially slightly loose joint properly lubricated was better
than the old tight style. All in all quite happy, we'll see how they
hold up in my evil rubber boots once I build a nice set of axles for the
'85, now that I got the sandblast cabinet finally running I can really clean
and paint axles like the factory intended.
John
vwbus@netbiz.net
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