Author Topic: How do I test CV joints? (Read 7959 times)

srivett · « **on:** March 30, 2005, 09:20:07 pm »

Ugh, I was driving shotgun with my brother in his '89 Golf. It's in such bad shape that I actually took it away from him and gave him my car for the week... :shock:

Anyway, back to testing the CV axles. I had the car lifted up and you can turn the drivers side tire back and forth 5/8" before the transmission hub starts to move. Does that mean it's dead? I'm gonna go do some figure 8s but I don't know if it'll tell me anything. When driving you can hear a loud clacking above the pounding of the guy trying to get out of the glovecompartment.

There are soo many bad things going on that it is hard to tell what is actually still good.

There doesn't appear to be any play in the wheel bearings.

Help? Thanks, Steve

lord_verminaard · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2005, 05:56:30 am »

Dont worry, we can rebuild it, we have the technology...

VW's are actually one of the easiest brands of cars to get back in tip-top shape if they have been neglected- Most repairs are easy and barring any serious engine/transmission or body damage, usually inexpensive.

That being said- back to the axles. Ok, you've probably done this, but get it back in the air, and grab the top and bottom of the wheel. Try and shake it, using in-and out method with your hands. No movement? Good. Skip down a few lines....

Movement? Check and see what is actually moving. Look behind the wheel where the spindle connects to the ball joint, shake again. The ball joints are shot if you see the spindle move at all. If the spindle doesnt move, then all that's left are wheel bearings.

Now, on to the axles. With the car lifted, grab an axle with both hands and shake it hard. If it moves much at all, good chance the CV joints are shot somewhere. It's not really worth messing with to just change the joints, just buy a new axle at your local parts monger. Figure 8ths arent the best way to test if the car is making noises elsewhere, but you notice vibration or any sort of sound that only happens when you turn the wheel and drive, the CV's are probably the culprit.

Good luck, happy testing!

Brendan
84 Scirocco 8v
00 Camaro L36 M49

Northboundtrain · « **Reply #2 on:** March 31, 2005, 07:12:16 am »

Are the boots damaged or worn? If so, then the least you'll have to do is replace them. When you do that, you go ahead and disassemble the joint and clean it and repack it. You will find out if the joint is bad. If it's bad, get a new axle. Kind of a lot of work just to find out you need a $70 part.

VWRacer · « **Reply #3 on:** March 31, 2005, 09:29:30 am »

Quote from: "srivett"

Anyway, back to testing the CV axles. I had the car lifted up and you can turn the drivers side tire back and forth 5/8" before the transmission hub starts to move. Does that mean it's dead?

Yes, buy new half-sharts (axles) with rebuilt CV joints and new boots.

Drive long time.

srivett · « **Reply #4 on:** March 31, 2005, 05:37:11 pm »

I can't figure out the CV joints. I am not sure if either one of them is good so I don't have a baseline to compare them too. I don't feel that they are able to be a danger to my brother so I'm going to leave them alone and have somebody else look at them.

What I did find that bothered me was oil on the drivers front brake pads, rotten brake hoses, and loose brake pads. The brake pads bounce all over the place when you hit a bump and it sounds like you are riding in a cash register! :oops: When I walked into Sudbury VW the two receptionists actually started laughing and asked if I was starting a collection. :oops: :oops: It doesn't help that the exhaust donut whistles...picked up one of them too. :roll:

FYI, 25" and 51" long 3/16" diameter metric bubble flare lines fit the front of the '89 very well. I totally mangled the ends of the old lines trying to get them off. I ended up using most of my brakecleen to clean the oil off the struts in an attempt to save the new pads from contamination. If I have any luck I'll be able to get this heap off my driveway tomorrow.

Steve

QuickTD · « **Reply #5 on:** March 31, 2005, 06:41:11 pm »

Quote

The brake pads bounce all over the place when you hit a bump and it sounds like you are riding in a cash register!

Did you get new anti rattle springs for the new brake pads? Sounds like they are missing...

srivett · « **Reply #6 on:** March 31, 2005, 08:03:39 pm »

Yeah, they don't come with the Monroes so I bought a pair of cheap Jasper pads and a set of clips for the same price as the Monroes (on sale for 45 bucks at Canadian Tire). There is 1/4" of movement so I don't know if it will help. I'm hoping it will do the trick but I'm not expecting much...

Steve

srivett · « **Reply #7 on:** April 01, 2005, 01:18:33 pm »

Now I'm really getting off topic but oh well...

I picked up the rubber sleeves but to my dismay there are also teflon bushings in there. The bushings were not in the kit! I was able to get the pads out today and the metal parts that touch the sliders are really worn. The noisest of the calipers was actually siezed so it looks like I've pretty much gotten everything figured out now.

Changing the toilet bowl gasket was interesting. The gasket I pulled out was actually steel instead of that impregnated wire gauze stuff you normally see.

Steve

srivett · « **Reply #8 on:** April 01, 2005, 05:51:19 pm »

argh! The speedo cable must have been missing its clip because it pulled out of the back of the speedometer. There goes another 3 hours of my life. :twisted:

It turns out that the new bushing kit does not require the teflon sleeves, it is an update. That was good news. The car seems to be a lot quiter now but I can still hear an exhaust whistle and a clacking CV joint. Hopefully it is safe enough to get me to the beer store and back.

Steve

racer_x · « **Reply #9 on:** April 03, 2005, 11:36:13 am »

Returning to the main topic here.

To check outer CV joints, jack up the car and support it on jackstands. Grab the axle and try to turn the wheel. If there's a lot of play between the wheel and the axle shaft, the outer CV joint is bad. Also look at the boot. If the boot is torn and has been for a while, the joint is probably bad.

To check inner CV joints, grab the drive flange on the transmission and try to turn the axle. Again, excessive play means a bad joint. There should be almost no play when turning the parts.

Also look for gear lube leaking from the boot on the inners. That means the puck seal in the drive flange has failed and there's gear lube leaking out of the transmission into the CV joint. That will kill the CV joint (gear lube washes out the heavy moly grease that the CV joint needs for lube), and it can kill the transmission (low lube in the transmission because of the leak.

I always replace CV joints with new CV joints. You can get remanufactured axles, but even the ones with "lifetime warranties" tend to fail fairly quickly. After the second or third replacement, taking the thing apart to replace it with a "free" axle gets old. New CV joints last almost forever as long as the boots are in good condtion (and the transmission seals are good for the inners). I've gotten over 200,000 miles from CV joints before. When boots or seals fail, that usually kills the joint fairly quickly, though.

One trick to keeping the boots in good condition is to put nylon cable ties in the folds. Just snug the zip ties down to the rubber. Don't crunch it down on the joint and bind things up. At high speeds, the folds can turn inside out and snag on anything nearby and tear.

srivett · « **Reply #10 on:** May 02, 2005, 12:02:53 pm »

Well, we never did fix the axle thing so your hands go numb after a few hours of driving his car. The trick is to keep a loose hold of the wheel so that your head doesn't start shaking. :?

Now for my car, I was going to dive in and change the inner boots but the axles have just *barely* got 400,000 km on them. Shound I just buy new non-rebuilt axles? I noticed that the rubber is getting micro cracks in the surface so I'd need to rebuild all 4 joints which would not be fun.

Thank you, Steve