H All,
please help,
I am wanting to rebuild my Cvs this week and have been putting this job off for a while.

Today when i started i didnt have any luck seperating the first one so i cleaned what i could and then pushed new grease through and re installed on driveshaft.

2nd one... moving nicely confidence up, seperated easily, great all cleaned puting back together is where trouble started. Couldn't get the bastard back together easily and when i finally got it together it seized completely. Doesnt want to move at all.

When i seperated andcleaned some in '07 they went back together easily and were able to move when back together.

Thats where i am and a little stuck. Have i done something wrong? I am pretty sure it has all gone back in the right direction but is there a trick to getting them back together... and freely moving. Do i just greas it u and let it find its own

I am currently going through this as part of my autostick replacement on my 71 super. Are your joints VW OE or GKN Lobro replacements? I've got both on the bench in assembled form right now so could take pics for you if you like.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the last week:
- One of my driveshafts had OE VW CVs. One of which was crapped out, one was perfectly serviceable.
- The other driveshaft had GKN Lobro CVs on each end. Both were crapped out (says something for OE VW parts)
- Crapped out means the balls are blue, pitted and/or the bearing cages are burred and out of shape, and/or the outer joint (the heavy part) is badly grooved or pitted.
- Rub the outer bearing grooves with your finger and you will probably feel where it is worn. Look for pitting in the grooves.
- Regarding orientation for GKN Lobro CVs, this was helpful: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=432312 
- I decided to replace all 4 (and keep the OE VW as a spare). Cost for GKN Lobro varies from $78 ea to $132 ea (with Mick Motors being the cheapest).
- I’m told that you do NOT put a hose clamp on the driveshaft part of the boot. The fit is very tight and clamping it will only twist and tear the boot sooner.
- I don’t believe you have to fill the entire boot with grease either. This will only put extra pressure on the boot and cause premature wear. That said, you have to have lots of grease worked through the joint, and I plan to fill the “cup” flange (on the trans and at the wheel) with grease as a reserve.
- I spent hours disassembling and reassembling the CVs to get ultimately familiar with them (it’s both challenging and therapeutic ONCE THEY ARE CLEANED)
- I found that unless you re-install the inner cage in exactly the same orientation (even though they look symmetrical) the joint just won’t work. It loses its “Ball & Socket” capability.
- The inner hub only goes in the cage one way and you may have to spin it inside the cage to get it around the right way.
- Re-installing the balls is a little tricky. My best method was to stand the joint up like a wheel with the cage and inner hub installed. Then pushing the top of the cage out you could pop the balls in one by one. You then rotate them around whilst holding the balls in (they fall out real easy when the joint is being assembled). The hardest ones to get in are the last two, but with a little jiggle of the inner hub they go in OK. Once assembled, lay it down flat so the balls don’t go everywhere and to stop you playing with the inner hub.
- On GKN lobro’s, the driveshaft side of the inner hub has a raised ring which looks like a built-in washer.
- On OE VW CVs, the OUTSIDE of the inner hub (which faces either the transmission or the wheel) has letters stamped on it. They also have a concave washer which goes on the driveshaft side (hence the built in washer on the GKN Lobro’s). You don’t install the washer with GKN Lobro’s.
- I also found that it was best to remove the entire drive shaft and pull it all apart, but you want to mark the wheel side of the shaft, do one joint at a time and try and keep it in the same orientation on the bench as it was in the car.
- My driveshafts were a bastard to knock out of the joint. I ended up putting them in a slot on a bench (like a vice) and knocking the bejesus out of the centre of the shaft with a mini-sledge hammer. The centre of the shaft has a little hole which is perfect for a centre punch. I had cardboard and polystyrene underneath for the shaft to fall on to.

I am assembling my drive shafts and new CV’s this week (new rubber boots, new circlips, new grease) so happy to compare notes.

Hope this helps. Cheers Pete

Hi

Lee is correct in the narrow v wide parts of the CVs lining up, they will lock solid if you do this and can be a mongrel to get apart.

I always put mine together starting with only 2 balls, I then pivot on these 2 balls until I get the next 2 in and then sneak the last 2 in with joint nearly closed up.

I also like change the direction of CVs when greasing them, I had a set on a bug for over 300,000 ks with regular greasing and reversing.

Steve

Great every one, now i need to try and seperate the seized one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great fedback and very helpful

cheers

Hey Aussie, I checked mine out tonight.

The old GKN lobro I had sitting on my bench was just thrown back together. I checked it and sure enough it was not working the right way and I looked at the relationship of centre hub to outer case and it was not aligned as per Lee's pic. I then pulled it apart and realigned it with narrow vs wide as per Lee's pic and voila! one working CV joint. This ones a little grooved so I'll probably keep it as a spare.

I then checked the brand spanking new ones (also GKN lobro) and they were assembled exactly the same as per Lee's pic. So I can confirm that it's all in the narrow vs wide relationship.
Make sure you have the inner hub facing the right way in relation to the outer case as well..

You should be able to pull the seized one apart. Just clean the grease out of it and jiggle the inner hub and bearing cage at the same time. Once you get access to one ball (sometimes need to pop em out with a screwdriver) the rest should come out fairly easily.


Good luck!

Hey there Aussie just checking in with you about your cv joints.

I got my 4 new lobro joints on the shafts, greased and installed this week. Turns out the ole VW joint that I had already reinstalled on the shaft had the cage the wrong way around. I stuffed around for and hour and a half trying reinsert the balls (after it was greased - what a mess!) then realized my mistake. I swapped it out for a new one and will retire it to the spare shelf.

Surely this is the messiest job on a VW?