Changing CV joints (front right and left axle assemblies)

[Triathlete]

The AZone shafts are remanufactured. For the same price you can get the Empi's on Amazon.com. In my opinion a much better part. Mine have been abused in Moab and held up just fine.

[Ldub]

The AZone shafts are remanufactured. For the same price you can get the Empi's on Amazon.com. In my opinion a much better part. Mine have been abused in Moab and held up just fine.

I just got a set of EMPI's from Amazon & I'm glad to hear yours are withstanding the type of extreme use you give them.

I was a bit concerned when i saw "made in China" on the box.

[VX KAT]

I just got a set of EMPI's from Amazon

Amazon says list price $841, and they're selling them for $90.95.... That's the biggest discount I've EVER seen....on anything....please tell me that list price is jacked up....

[tom4bren]

Mike,

The CVs for dummies thread is here:

http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...hlight=dummies

Hope the parts you ordered work out for you.

To answer a few of your questions:

The axles (left and right) are the same from the wheel all the way to the inner green cup. The shaft that the inner green cup is attached to is much longer on one side (offset differential).

The instructions you posted really are that easy ... but they are only for the boot replacement. If you need to swap out the CVs, then it's much more involved. In the download section, there are instructions for installing the differential drop brackets that show removal of the axles from the differential.

If it's your outer CV that's FUBAR then you're in for more work. Some say that the outer joints come apart but from my experience, it's a job for a professional.

I just got through with a re-build on mine - again. This time it was caused from hidden damage from an accident I had last year. The drivers side outer CV exploded. My guess is that the accident caused a fracture in the bearing cage and a few months later, it failed catastrophically. The rebuild basically took parts from 3 different sets of axles to build 1 good set. Just got it out of the shop 2 days ago so don't have any prognosis on the longevity of the rebuild.

Basically, the components that wear are the outer race (green cup), the inner race (star) & the cage (collar that surrounds the balls). As far as I know, MSHardeman & I are the only ones who have attempted a rebuild of existing parts. On mine (& I'm sure MSHardeman's was the same) the balls had worn grooves in both the inner and outer races. The shop will grind out those grooves and install larger balls to compensate for the sacrificed material. The only problem that I encountered was that the balls seemed to bind slightly in the cage but that was only before install. After installed (under load), they seemed fine. Remember that it was my outer CV that exploded so the rebuilt parts never failed.

There's an animated cartoon on wikipedia that shows how the CV works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CV_joint

[Ldub]

Amazon says list price $841, and they're selling them for $90.95.... That's the biggest discount I've EVER seen....on anything....please tell me that list price is jacked up....

They must'v used Isuzu OEM pricing as a guide when they came up with that number.

[tom4bren]

The last price I got from Isuzu is $932 per side. That was 6 months ago.

[VX KAT]

The last price I got from Isuzu is $932 per side. That was 6 months ago.

then we should all be buying a few extras at that price....just to have around.....

[VX KAT]

I just had a CV boot replaced this week, so I was looking up all the CV stuff here.

****ONE CAUTION****.....Many (owners and mechanics) have trashed their ABS sensor when changing the front inner CV boot.....including MY mechanic. It's about $400 new (per side!), I got one from a salvage yard from a Trooper for $90.

I'll dig up the schematics for the front axle that helped me understand what was going on, and Mark (mshardeman) was super helpful and sent some pics so I could further see what was going on and where the ABS sensor was etc...

Here's my thread from last week discussing the CV boot repair AND the ABS sensor issue:
http://vehicross.info/forums/showthr...threadid=20650

Here's Tom's write up:
http://www.vehicross.info/downloads/...ch_Install.pdf

Here's Moncha's:
http://vehicross.info/modules.php?na...warticle&id=68

[Dumke]

The AZone shafts are remanufactured. For the same price you can get the Empi's on Amazon.com. In my opinion a much better part. Mine have been abused in Moab and held up just fine.

Not a fan of the EMPI's myself. I come to find out after removing my passenger side CV that it was a EMPI where my driverside wasnt. I am guessing mine failed and broke because of a sevral compounding issues like being lifted and well going to Moab. So as I was driving down the highway it started making the usual noise it made but louder this time. It had made this noise when they where first installed but mechanic told me its because I was lifted and who was I to argue with him. I pulled over off the highway to check under my truck to see where new noise was comming from and well it started smoking (yes i said smoking) I see smoke coming from the inner green cup. I got home and after ripping them apart I see how being lifted and taking it off road that the EMPI failed due to its design and lets just say some peices got worn a bit. I threw away the shaft and forgot to take close up pictures but when I get home I will send what few pictures I did take. The OEM's and the outter barrings of the EMPI has balls (haha it is kinda funny mark) where as the inner has lugs with rings around them. When I had tried to pull them out some of the rings where stuck in the cup and I had to file the green cup enough to pull them out. The inside was soo worn.

Just my 23 cents of what I ran into. Hopefully the rest of you wont run into same trouble I had but againt I think EMPI went bad because of being lifted without drop brackets and going off road. If I wasnt lifted or had a drop bracket I think they would be fine for off road use.