I brought down the rear end of my Superbug to compensate for the new lowered struts I bought of Jak, but now I'm getting a clicking noise from one of the CV joints on the rear.

Does this mean my CV joint is on its way out or needs repacking with grease?

How do you tell which CV it is, and how much are replacements.

Thanks

Steve

It means it's on it's way out.
Once the offending axle is off, see which CV has radial play (a good one has none and is firm to move in any direction) or which one has pitting.
I think Kombi ones are ~$150 mark, so I guess beetle ones are cheaper?

oohh!! the dreaded clack clack of a cv joint. not the cleanest job in the world, that black grease all over you eh!! a good weekend job.:bounce:bounce

First thing is to clean and examine them.

When removing the small retaining bolts, make sure you have the right tool - it's usually an 8mm 12 point spline drive, but on SOME vehicles (type2s?) allen keys were used. If you use and Allen key on a spline drive it will burr the points and ruin the bolt.


Mark the outer end of the axle with a coloured paint spot etc so you know which way it was installed (more on this later).

You can remove the joints from the axle, but they can also be cleaned by repeated dipping in kerosine etc and scubbing with an old toothbrush.

With the joint clean, as Andy said, check for any slop in the balls and races (they should feel very snug with no freeplay between inner and outer races). Also carefully check the ball and grooves themselves - blueing indicates overheating, and any stratches or pits means the CV is toast (or nearly so).

They will continue to work for a while when worn, but they will eventually have to be replaced.

If still in reasonable condition, use LOTS of black molly grease (Castrol LMM or similar) to repack them. Push the grease in from one side only untill it appears on the other side and you know it's pushed right through the middle.

Now to the paint spot you made on the axles. If you have cleaned the joints whilst still on the axles, you can now try installing them the other way round (axles turned over so the paint spots are at the inner end), so the joints are actually drivng in the opposite direction. This will load the other side of the grooves the balls run in, and might give you an extended life (as I said, if they ARE worn, they will eventually need replacing.

In the USA the beetle CVs are around $56 US each, and the bus CVs are about $79 US each. Double that and add a bit for rough Aussie prices.



[Edited on 9-5-2003 by aussiebug]