Who's replaced the front drivers side axle?

[MSHardeman]

As some of you may have read I am having some issues with my front CV's, as well as a noise at highway speed. The mechanic took the front CV apart and found that the inner cup (I'm still not sure on all the terminology here) is pretty scared up due to my CV boot failing and all kinds of junk getting in there. I am looking to replace the axle on that side and thanks to Billy (Triathlete) I have gotten a couple of part numbers for the Empi half shafts that are for sale around the net ( http://www.amazon.com/Empi-Constant-Velocity-Complete-Assembly/dp/B000JZFP9C ), but it seems like I am going to need the "long" axle on the drivers side that fit's into the housing and connects to the third member. The link above shows a 24" total axle length, but I'm hearing that I need something that is closer to 48" total length. Has anyone ever replaced that? Does anyone know a part number for it? Deermagnet, you always have crazy stuff stored away somewhere; any clue?

Right now we are going to send the axle out to a place in Denver who is going to take a look at it to see if they can just rebuild the CV instead of trying to replace the whole thing.

I just want to have as much info as I can so I can make an informed decision about what is best for my baby using what limited funds I have.

Thanks for the input y'all.

[MSHardeman]

Wait, hold on, time out.....can you dis-assemble the inner CV joint from the half shaft (the axle that is in the front housing)? If so couldn't I just leave the half shaft alone and replace the little drive axles from the inner CV out?

[tom4bren]

Hardy,

Unfortunately I have experienced what you have. Lucky for you, there are replacements avaialble now that weren't when I was in need.

I made out fairly well considering at the time I didn't know what I know now.

I was able to get a set of half shafts from a bone yard but I didn't know anything about installing them at the time. Lucky for me there is a very good axle shop where I live. The only condition they placed on the job was that they didn't want to pull the shaft out & managed to rework the inner CVs using donor parts from the axles from the bone yard.

Sorry I can't get you measurements from mine but I recently sent them to RCV (I think that was the name of the place) for them to reverse engineer aftermarket shafts for us.

There was a lot of talk about CVs in some old threads, I'll post links when I find them.

& yes, you can remove the half shafts from both the inner & outer CVs and run without shafts at all (green cups will be empty) until you find the correct replacements.

http://www.vehicross.info/forums/showthread.php?t=11703&highlight=cvs+dummies

[WormGod]

Mine has been replaced, but not by me. I fought the wall and the.... wall won. Snapped in 2. OEM replacement.

I am of no help to you, but know you are not alone. :bgwb:

Aftermarkets appear to be fairly pricey and I wouldn't just replace "1". On a limited budget, you might just consider the boneyard.

[tom4bren]

If you can find where blujfan scrapped the husk of the VX he parted out, the half shafts were still on it.