How big are your balls?

[Lucian08]

This whole process has me baffled as to why. The actual shaft very rarely goes bad unless the splines get mangled. I have never seen a oem shaft go bad. What usually goes bad is the balls and/or the cage. They generally wear or, in offroading cases, when bound up grenade. So, why are we replacing the shaft and reusing the ball/cage assembly? Just curious,!

You are correct that the shaft is fine, however the splines are a different count between the EMPI and OEM shaft. That means that whichever shaft is used/reused, you must also use that retainer. The only other parts are the outer cage and the balls. In my trial I could not get the cage and balls from one to transfer over to the other, but Vette had a different experience. That means that if you want to replace any of the assembly components, then you have to change the shaft. In either case, none of the components are the same. Different spline count, different ball size, and different mechanism to hold the retainer in the cage.

[89Vette]

You are correct that the shaft is fine, however the splines are a different count between the EMPI and OEM shaft. That means that whichever shaft is used/reused, you must also use that retainer. The only other parts are the outer cage and the balls. In my trial I could not get the cage and balls from one to transfer over to the other, but Vette had a different experience. That means that if you want to replace any of the assembly components, then you have to change the shaft. In either case, none of the components are the same. Different spline count, different ball size, and different mechanism to hold the retainer in the cage.

Interesting....I do remember it being kindof a trick to get the balls/cage on the new retainer/shaft. (rubick's cube stuff.)

As for replacing the whole shaft, I chose to do so because it new the boot had been compromised for a much as 2yrs...maybe quite a bit more. With THAT much exposure to debris, I didn't want to chance re-using the same [outer] CV components. (with a new boot).

Plus, for less than $100/shaft, I couldn't think of what the downside might be.