[Shotimes] cv joint explosion

[Ian Fisher]

List is slow so I thought that I'd post my finding of
the day. It stopped raining so I had a chance to look
at the SHO.

Some of you may remember that I mentioned a vibration
issue and found that my rear driver's side SF bolt was
so loose that the subframe was shifting up and down
whenever I accelerated and turned the steering wheel.
I torqed it back to 100 ft/lb (aluminum bushings) and
checked the others (they were fine). Most of the
problem went away but a lot of it was still there.
What I found today is that the driver's side inner CV
joint had leaked all of it's grease out onto the
transmission. If I compress the boot, I can hear air
moving in and out of it. Not good.

My theory is that the CV joint was overextending
itself more and more while the subframe was popping up
and down. Eventually it just wore out completely.
Moral of the story: fix problems before they turn
worse and create more problems.

If I decide to replace the halfshaft seals in the
trans, how difficult are they to remove? Which is
preferred, Ford or Timken?

The rest is background info:
The halfshafts are reman. A1 units that I bought from
a parts store called carparts in Central NJ in 2001.
That store has since been bought by autozone. I am
inquiring with the local autozone here (a former abc
auto) to see if they will honor carpart's warranty. I
believe the A1's were lifetime guaranteed. I am
supposed to check back with them tomorrow after they
call their district manager. The guy I spoke with
didn't even want to take down my info and phone number
or give me his name. I'm not holding my breath to see
if he contacts his DM. Worst case scenario is that I
buy another reman unit for $60ish.

Ian "soon to be vibration free-I hope" Fisher



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com