I need a hand guys. CV Axle Question.

Does anyone have stock CV axles and happen to have their truck jacked up? When I spin my wheel by hand, I’m noticing that both of my front axle shafts appear to not be spinning “true”. They seem to be wobbling slightly with each rotation. I’ve tried using a straight edge to very that they are bent, but I’m not 100% sure that if they are, or if there is something else going on. I’m wondering if a little “runout” in their rotation is normal, maybe there is a little play in the connection on either end to the hub/front dif? Would anyone mind inspecting their front axles and seeing if they can visually verify whether or not they have a bit of an irregular rotation? I’m also hearing a clicking noise coming from the dif side of the driver’s side front CV. Probably normal? Thank you.

 

When your spinning the wheels by hand is the truck jacked up with the front wheel hanging, I'd be curious how much the truck is lifted? If the wheels are hanging from the suspension when jacked up off the ground you're out towards the CVs max range of misalignment, they will oscillate a bit in that situation when rotating not under load, it's not typically a sign of a problem. Unless the tuck is lifted allot the OEM CVs in decent condition should work fine.

 

I’m new here so I’m not sure if this is how you “reply” to an individual comment… hopefully you get notified.

Yes, the truck is jacked up with front wheel hubs hanging. Just installed Bilstein 5100’s with HD OME springs (2.5” lift). Should I try jacking up a wheel and spinning it to see if the oscillation goes away?

Basically I just installed the lift, and while I was at it I am doing the brakes. I have had a bad vibration only while braking and more evident at high speed. Crazy thing is the rotors are pretty recent (~20k miles) which I didn’t realize (previous owner). So now I’m worried that the oscillation is being caused by a bad seating on the hub (I have cleaned the corrosion off of the contact surface now), a warped hub, a bad wheel bearing, a warped or bad CV, a warped axle flange, a stuck caliper….? The calipers look pretty crusty after 20 years so I think I will just replace while I’m at it… Maybe the newish rotors were the problem and I’m just over-thinking it. I’m pretty new to mechanical work and I’m a bit overwhelmed since this job has evolved beyond simple and beyond my scope of knowledge. Thanks so much for your time it’s very appreciated.

 

Is the driver side worse?

The cv axle moves a little on the passenger side where it meets the diff. On the driver side it moves a lot, up down left right. This movement where the cv axle meets the diff is likely why you are seeing the axle move around and not spinning "true."

On the driver side there is an upgrade to correct this. It's called ECGS bushing. Search it here or Google and you will see many have upgraded to the ECGS bushing to get rid of vibrations or just to preemptively tackle the job before it becomes a problem.

 

Another possibility is NON OEM cv axles. They will bind a lot at full droop. If the wheel hangs up while turning slowly, at full droop, it is easy to identify.

 

I'd have someone very lightly apply brakes (engine off) while it's jacked up as each front wheel is spun slowly. If the rotors are warped you'll feel the uneven drag as the wheel rotates. Depending on how cheap the prev owner went on rotors and how the wheels were torqued, only having 20K mi is no guarantee. To me it'd be unlikely that your issue is the CV joints if this just cropped up. No knocking your work but often these kind of things have something to do with the most recent work that was done.

 

I think the driver’s side is only ever so slightly worse… it is definitely noisier, but the oscillation in the axle shaft is hardly worse..

The CV’s appear to be stock. They aren’t binding, they are just undulating maybe 1/16th of an inch or so as I turn the wheel hub manually…

 

I bought the truck just a couple of years ago, and honestly the brakes have been doing this almost if not the whole time. No work has been done on the truck by me until now. Like I said - I assumed warped rotors but they are new and have tons of material, along with the pads. It makes me assume that either the rotors ARE warped and something else has caused it, or that they aren’t warped and something else is causing the shaking felt in the steering wheel during braking only…

 

Is this wobble mostly at the inner CV?
It's been a bit since the last time i had mine jacked up (putting the lift on), but I vaguely seem to remember a visible wobble in the shafts at the inner CV when I was rotating mine as well. Likely because of the tri-pod design of the CV joint combined with the angle. If things turn smoothly w/o binding, I doubt its something to worry about (a light clicking/ratchet-like noise while turning the driverside will also be normal, it's the spider gears rolling within the diff as you turn it).

Shaking in the steering that occurs only while braking sounds like warped rotors.
If they're warped real bad, you may be able to see the warpage by looking at the rotor's edge through the caliper opening. Otherwise you may need a dial gauge or something to check it (put two or three of the lug nuts back on to make sure the rotor remains seated against the hub while you turn it).