Stolen from another forum...kind of cool though.
***I thought it would be fun to show you all what a bad CV joint looks like.
BTW, this is on my "other" car, an 88 Accord I bought used a few weeks ago. It has 273,000 miles on it, but still runs as strong as an old Honda can
Here we go.
First up, the old axle, off the car.
As you can see, this thing is nasty. :yuk:
Without the boot...
NASTY
Now, according to just about every manual you will read for most cars, they will say that the outboard CV joints CANNOT be disassembled. What they really mean to say is that the joints cannot be disassembled while still on the axle. So what do you do? Take it off the axle!
Its also cleaned up a little here.
Now, this CV joint is called a Rzeppa (pronounced sheppa) joint, which is what most cars will use as an outboard CV joint.
So up next on the disassembly is to get the balls and cage out.
This is the outer race of the CV joint.
This is what all is in the outer race
Now, you may ask what causes the CV joints to clunk or tick when they wear out. This is your answer.
That polished spot on the left side is actually a groove worn into the outer race.
This is a groove caused by the same thing on the inner race.
The clunk happens because when these grooves appear, it causes alot of freeplay in the joint. Ideally, they are supposed to have pretty tight clearances and not really have any freeplay. This particular joint could be pulled in and out about 2mm, which when on the car was causing a clunk.
It also wore in a groove in the cage itself, causing more freeplay.
In any case, this axle is toast.
So, there you have it, a bad CV joint.
Now you know why it makes that sound, and why you shouldn't drive the car around with a torn CV boot.
Enjoy!
Linear Mode
