CV Axle options

Its the inner only. I think they can also do outer though (recommend if you have the money). One note, when talking to them, they say the outer boots they use are not as good a quality as the OEM boots and can install OEM outer boots for extra $$$ as well. But like I said, I would see about some high angle outers if you can afford it.

 

Does anyone have any experience with EMPI brand cv axles? Been thinking about those when I need to replace next time.

 

Better off with reman OEM axles. It looks like EMPI only make boots and not axles. They are probably partnered with a cheap Chinese company to make the axle and they provide the boot and name.

 

Thank you for the heads up. Is cvj the only company that makes reman oem units?

 

That I know of

You can always do it yourself. Not hard but a bit time consuming and very messy.

 

Sub

 

It has the potential to be but with careful planning and attention, isn't that bad. Last time I did it, didn't even wear gloves. Kept most of the grease in the boots when I took them off then cleaned out what I could with paper towels.

 

I called CVJ a few minutes ago and they said they couldn't do high angle boots on the outers. Something to do with the angle.

I also asked one of their tech's named Sean about the 'boot slide mod' and he wasn't familiar with what I was talking about.

Chris, do you remember the name of the individual you talked with about the slide mod?

 

Has anyone had any experience with NAPA CV axles? I just replaced my passenger side axle with one and it worked great for about a mile, and then I started getting a scraping noise coming from that wheel. They seemed to be the same as the OEM axles to me. I can't tell if I screwed something up or if I got a bad rebuild or what.

 

Just last week replaced a Napa axle that had been in a low duty Subaru legacy exactly 2 years. It was shot. Outer boot torn and inner Trap beaing gone/very gritty.

 

I sent a letter with my axle and included the link to the 1st gen boot slide mod thread and a quick explanation of what it was. Its not a hard concept and Im sure a tech can figure it out.

Weaker and (from what I hear) dont articulate as much as stock. Cheap for a trail spare and no questions warranty.

 

Crap!!! I guess I'll have to take it off and put the old one back on for now till I can give CVJ a call and get some of those.

 

CVJ gave me the name of another company, Lotus Development. Granted, each CV costs $500 but it does sound like an interesting concept.

http://lotusdevelopmentllc.mybigcom...d-d-differentials-lotus-chromoly-caged-axles/

 

The lotus axles are really nice. The thing is they are too strong imo. I'd rather have the cv break than something inside the front diff.

 

Yeah, Ive seen those. They replace the outer cage (typical point of failure) with a much stronger part. Its very nice but the price is kind of hard to justify. The issue I have with those are two fold:

-For $1000 (one pair), I can buy ~15-20 pairs of napa axles.

-If the outer cage doesn't break, what will? The 7.5" front diff isn't exactly the strongest. Ive read of two ppl claiming they blew their front diff running these axles (locked front). Its a bandaid; if you are wheeling hard enough that you need to drop $1k on CV axles, you should probably consider SAS

 

Totally agree. $1000 will put you well on your way to an SAS kit.

 

Crap. My wife's Subaru has one in it now. No problems yet but this is definitely not what I wanted to hear.

I went with CVJ. When I started doing the work I decided to go ahead and do the lower ball joints. Then I noticed the sway bar end links were shot and replaced them. Then I noticed the tie rod boots were torn and replaced them too. Then wound up having to swap the diff drivers side output bearing with a bushing from ECGS. Bottom line: between all of this and the Light Racing upper control arms, I probably could have just done a SAS.

 

Sorry folks, not trying to dis Napa stuff as I think it is better than most and I shop there quite often. Napa warranty's are some of the best in the biz.

This previous owner had put the semi beat down on this 96 Subaru. Multiple Big hairy dogs roaming the cramped interior and he would waylay the sheetmetal when he was pissed. A $500 awd beater,,that still gets lots of miles per gallon. EAZY cv axle change on those. Done in a few moments and moved on to another project.

No $1k axles needed here,,I'll pass on those. They look cool, someone spent some duckets getting it right so he's trying to recoup asap I would guess.

 

So just in case anyone is interested... I Removed the NAPA part and put the old OEM one back in and the scraping noise went away. Durring my inspection when taking the NAPA one back off I noticed that there was an awful lot of brake pad dust built up around the edge of the outer pad. I thought about my experience installing it and I realized that it was really really tough getting the axle to seat in the hub assembly with the axle nut.

I realized that it hadn't actually seated as deep as it needed to (about 1/4 inch too little) even though I torqued it to the proper spec (184 ft/lbs) and i was able to cotter pin it and everything. It was a total bitch to get seated even that far... In any case, I believe this was transferring pressure through the hub to the rotor and causing it to rub on the outer pad.

I inspected the threads on both axles and noticed that the metal of the OEM one was a chomoly steel with no coating but the NAPA one seem like a high carbon steel with a coating on it... I'm assuming to make it corrosion resistant like the chomoly OEM one. I believe it was that coating that made it prohibitively difficult to get the axle to seat in the hub.

Like i said, I put the OEM one back in and it was MUCH easier to install and I will be driving around on that till I can get my order from CVJ.

 

Careful with the boot slide mod on the outer on a 2nd gen axle. At full droop it'll rub the lower shock mount bolt causing possible damage.