How big are your balls?

[LittleBeast]

So in summary if replacing a blown CV in the future, just try using the new Cage from the EMPI with the OEM balls, shaft, and retainer?

I have all of these spare parts sitting in my garage. I think the EMPI ones are made for Troopers, and I tried replacing one of my CV's with a troopers CV and the CV balls were too small, and I got a whole lot of popping and slipping. Then I bought a used VX CV and it slid in and made no noise.

[89Vette]

So in summary if replacing a blown CV in the future, just try using the new Cage from the EMPI with the OEM balls, shaft, and retainer?

I think you have it backwards......

On the inboard side, the EMPI balls (CV "race") won't be large enough to fill that green cup on the outer part of the axle.

If you use an EMPI halfshaft, you'll need to reuse the OEM cage/balls. If the balls are scored/damage, you could look for ones that measure the 20.6mm size specified above. OTOH, if that were true, I'd wonder about the condition of the receiving "tulip". (green cup).

At this point, the question in my mind was whether I also reused the OEM inner retainer (the thing pictured above).

If the OEM inner retainer won't work (wrong splines or wrong length), then you might not be able to do the conversion OR use the EMPI shaft -- without problems. If the EMPI half-shaft doesn't allow the use of the OEM inner CV retainer, my next thought would be to modify it....OR make darn sure the EMPI and OEM retainers have the same arc/curveature. It would be necessary to prevent the type of wear pictured.

One of us should probably contact EMPI (and/or Cardone?) to notify them of this issue/discrepancy. Could it be that Trooper, Rodeo, and other Isuzu's use a different sized inner cup on their inner front axles?