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87 Crx Honda Cv Axle Joint Rebuild, Slop/backlash New Vs Used


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#1
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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Both my outer honda NOK cv boots tore since the last 3000 mile oil change. Most of the grease still in place, not gritty, i dont drive in rain or dusty roads. Pulled the shafts w intent to reboot again. then decided to gather all the other sets ive accumulated over the years and quantify wear. Also had been getting faint clicking when going into 1st to reverse w wheels straight. needed to confirm if cvs or differential bearings. Never had clicking during turns

Another science project we go...... stock axles for 87 crx si only

Bought car in 93 w 78k. Never pissed on the car other than pulled a small 400 pound trailer for maybe 6000 miles over its lifetime. sometimes hauled rock in excess of 2000 pounds. But was usually 800 pound load. Accelerated gently to take it easy on transmission/driveshaft. Axles are the original oem axles w 259k

rebooted the first time around 100k in 1995 (aftermarket grease/boots)

rebooted 2nd time 162k 3/00 w oem boots grease

rebooted 3rd time 192k 8/04. w oem boots/grease

This sets the usage history of the 259k axles


Next I grouped the 6 sets of used axles and the 259k set, including 2 Honda NOS outer joints i pulled from storage for slop/backlash measurement. The six sets were tossed up in my attic over the past 20 yrs and i didnt do a good job of recording where they came from

Measurements
i measured rotational backlash of each joint. placed axle shaft in vise, used a 11 long channel plier to grab the splines, measured rotational deflection, applied inverse tangent to defection/11 to convert to degrees. Took some careful setup control to ensure i got consistent results. Was repeatable

Below i describe what i know of each shaft set, miles, accident, oem vs rebuilt to best of my knowledge

LABELS:
A) driver outer , B) driver inner, C) passenger inner, D) passenger outer - degrees

Honda NOS (outer only, inners buried to deep in storage to locate). Outer came attached to shaft
A). .35. B) na. C) na. D). .35

1987 crx si #1: 259k axles as described above
A) 1.36 B) 1.47 C) .115 D) .115
Upon removing boots, i could see a lot of movement in the spline mating surfaces of the inner spyder and same for outer joint inner race. id assume the movement made up half of the total slop, if not more

98k 1987 crx si #4. Oem axles/boots/bands - im positive these are original, never rebuilt
A) 1.0 B) .85 C) .65 D) .70
car was hit squarely in front. i assume no collision damage

212k 1987 crx si #5. no accident. aftermarket rebuilds since i bought this car pre 2000
A) .68 B) .65 C) .82 D) 1.02
bought this car from a wrecker. died on highway due to bad ignitor.

1987 crx si???. A lister #7?? oem axles/boots/bands. positive original, never rebuilt.
A) 1.47 B) 1.23 C) .82 D) 1.12
possibly came from alisters #7, or junkyard? i dont remember. mileage not confirmed

129k 1987 crx si #9, Front collision smashed in drivers side hard enough to crack knuckle. drivers shaft was oem w original boots/bands, drivers inner bearings lost. passenger was reman axle. drivers side still on hub. stuck axle nut. cant measure. passenger was rebuilt, assume very low miles
A) na B) na C) .65 D) .82

150k 1986 crx si pair of reman/aftermarket shafts pulled from random junkyard. both axles reman from rockford, hurst, tx. passenger spindle nut stuck, cant messure yet
A) 1.99 B) 1.25 C) na D) na

ARI remanufactured passenger axle purchased new, unused sitting in box
A) na. B) na. C) .46 D) .30

a random drivers shaft. oem inner boot w aftermarket outer boot. no idea
A) 1.34. B) 1.12 C) na. D) na

1987 crx si??? drivers side oem boots/bands. passenger rockford reman
A) didnt messure, i whacked off the joint. B) .76 C). 1.25. D). 1.66



Im using the NOS outer joint as my new baseline. Since i didnt have time to pull the nos inners, im just going to assume they are the same and multiply by 2 for total new backlash from honda nos half shaft. so i assume oem honda backlash is .35 + .35 = .7 degrees of backlash per half shaft. BASELINE .7 degrees

my goal of science project was to return my axles to as near new using original honda oe joints/boots/bands/shafts/grease. i cherry picked the best of above to rebuild a new set for my 259k beater.

PASSENGER: i used the 98k #4 oem passengershaft/joints/bands as is. repacked w honda grease/nok boots.

DRIVER: i used one of my nos drivers shaft/outer joint sets. i used the inner joint tulip from my passenger 259k shaft bc it was in awesome condition. but swapped to other side of drivetrain so itll run on reverse side. this 259k tulips inner grooves were perfect. i couldnt detect any wear as a ran my finger along the groove. but the oem spider was very loose on the splines after 259k miles. so i grabbed a good\tight spyder / bearings from an oem shaft w/ .76 degrees. assembled the new drivers shaft

my new rebuilt shaft w honda parts
A) .35 B) .57 C). .49 D). .68

This reduces the drivers shaft slop from 2.83 to .92 degrees. Assuming a new shaft is .7, thats only 31% over new

reduces the passenger shaft slop from 2.30 to 1.17 degrees. assuming a new shaft is .7, that 67% over new.

put about 500 miles on my self rebuilt axles. Work great. no vibrations. i can feel the reduction is axle slop as i change gears. Feels more responsive


What Ive learned....

1) The inner joints are the same p/n 44310-sa5-300 as the 83-87 prelude and 81-85 accord. Both these cars have larger engines so i assume out little civics and crx inner joints dont wear out bc they are designed for heavier cars w larger motors = good for us. explains why my 259k inners looked really good.
2) new honda shafts DO have backlash from factory. many post that axles should be tight. I believe reman axles are too tight since they use oversized balls w reground races stuffed together. and reman breaks in and slop loosens in the first 1000 miles???
3) Many claim better to use rebuilt axles w genuine honda shafts w the 2 red stripes for best fit and no vibration
4) i opened 2 remanned inner joints, examined the bearings and races. obvious they ground out the previous wear and installed oversized roller bearings, reversed driver to passenger side to even wear. the larger bearings were .005 larger. probably not a balance/vibration problem?
5). Play musical parts w your own cores to rebuild your own
6) since honda grease still available, use it for long life. i got 259k out of my joints and they still werent clicking. my clicking appears to be differential bearings from hauling trailer.
7) i tried using metal stamps to mark my joint s. honda does a great job w heat treat. i had to pound hard just to make a faint mark on the joint. curious to make my own rockwell drop slide. could compare hardness between aftermarket and oem
8) baseline measure joints for backlash when rebooting. then you can track wear
9) remanufacturers dont like to rebuild a core twice per industry standard A second round of grinding and oversized bearings removes too much of the hardened metal on the races = quick failure. saw an article about not removing more than .010 of hardened race metal. so if a core gets ground/rebuilt twice, its going to fail faster
10) early 2000s when new chinese axles came to market. beginning of reman decline
11) called a dallas rockford shop to ask about rebuild 80s axles. he said hes out of parts
12) called rockford corporate. they stopped making rebuild kits 15 yrs ago due to cheap chinesesxle cost and parts stores dont want to deal w cores
13) tracking my oem boots for longevity. most of my stock is 15-20yrs old. at some point aftermarket boots will out perform due to age
14) appears 50% of slop comes from the spline connection. id swap spiders on shafts. appears slop followed the spiders.
15). i cant tell how much backlash will will cause clicking. dont know if my other axles click

My old 259k oe shafts could have kept going in service - no clicking, just a lot of backlash. car drives so much better on shifting. im confident my self rebuilds will last another 150-200k, w a few boot changes of course. Happy to keep my japanese metal/rubber/grease.

Probably the best info in this for you is to know the backlash of a new honda axle. knowing what the degradation in backlash after 259k on a working axle. then you can decide when your axle is really worn out. or the backlash becomes too much for your taste

if youve read all of this, more power to you. i have 4 other crxs to work on. thats the reason for going to this level. now i can cookie cut the process for the others

investigating sourcing outer replacement joints from ashika, triscan, etc...have some on order. keep you posted
Keepin' it OEM

#2
anjin

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Nice information. I can vouch for the hardness of that period honda axles. Had a set altered for a B swap and the shop that did it mentioned how much harder they were than a Hyundai they had in at the same time.

I went to the 84 civic FSM to see if there was any info on axle backlash. No mention at all. They say to check the splines for wear, and the inside ball race for wear. About what you say, in other words.


anjin aka Ian

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#3
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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interesting anjin. thnx for info. now i’m curious to make a dyi rockwell hardness test. compare oem to ashika, triscan, etc. this will tell us which aftermarket is best. some of these rebuilt axles i have w so much slop, i’m curious to take apart. i can test the inner race of the outer joints, compare w oem

my understanding is reman will reuse the exterior cv joint body. and change bearings, inner race, carriage w judgement in machining as required. i found an article from a reman trade journal from the 90’s. stated problem w regrind of worn races is difficult to match geometry of original. so this mismatch wears down quickly in the beginning of use as it’s breaking in. then ur grease is contaminated w excessive metal particles, then rebuilt joint wears faster
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#4
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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I’ve thought about this more and changed my thinking.

Anjin makes a good point about Honda heat treatment and hardness. i feel that’s true of most Honda 80’s parts. My steering rack, steering joints and ball joints all lasted until i rebuilt them around 255k shows the same trend in metallurgy

Oem inner/outer joint housing don’t show heat treat marks. I think the heat treat goes all the way through. Europe rebuilds their joint w new. I sourced several lobro joints from Europe.. The heat treat color distortion can clearly be seen in the critical wear areas on Lobros. Thinking Honda did too good of a job here.

I’ve discovered some junkyards have storage of cv shafts from the 90’s boxed up for remanufacture cores. Core builders went out of business. They never purged stock. In some of these boxes are honda oe axles from lower mileage cars back in that time frame. I visited several DFW junkies, went through their stock and found another 7 honda oe axles. now i know what “gently worn” axles feel like, i bought them up

I did have an oem outer joint i popped apart several years ago. I took it apart. Was like a rubic’s cube. Then i tried to wack off another outer a few weeks ago. Beat the hell out of it. Wouldn’t come off. Now i understand where i can cut the axle of the spare, good passenger shaft. And remove the outer joint to swap to the drivers side outer. Now i have several crappy drivers rebuilt shafts. ill cut the joint apart to save the shaft, then rebuild w the good outer pulled front the passenger side, since i now have several good ones. I can produce cherry picked oem joints/axles/shafts to make my own assemblies w very low mileage wear.

More effort on this than I’d like to admit.

I suspect rebuilders used a hydraulic device to separate the outer joints from the shafts. Reground the races, over sized the bearings. Called it done.... We use the rebuilds. The reground races don’t match geometry. Wear faster and metal accumulates in grease excellerating the wear more.

Another thought, my boots seem to be wearing out at faster intervals. Obviously Rubber molded in the early 90’s Honda NOS stock won’t last for ever. But the increasing backlash wear over time increasingly twists the boots accelerating boot wear

At some point i’ll figure out how to post pix.

It’s a path to rebuilding goods shafts
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#5
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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Did some more axle work.    
 

my NOS drivers axle shaft installed in 2020 bent from impacting the drivers side torsion bar housing when I drove a roller coaster back country road.   I’m guessing when the car came out of the dip, became airborne, the axles and drivetrain flexed downward from the engine mounts.  This interfered w the torsion bar housing, impacted the axle, bending it.   Car was also a rebuilt salvage title back in 1988.  Impact was on front drivers side.   This damage probably help create the interference condition by distorting the frame

 

 

53198007906_f74e61b3ed_c.jpgpen top shows where the housing scapes the paint off the axle on impact

 

53211956290_ee9ce73eb6_c.jpg

I used my hydraulic press to straighten the axle at the point of where the paint was scraped away.   When I bent this back, I still had a little wobble upon rotation on the shaft up close to the outer joint.   I reinstalled the shaft.  And replaced the original front 270k  wheel bearings while I was at it

 

53211845789_2064652ccb_z.jpg

I ground down the top of the torsion housing as much as I felt comfortable w to give me additional clearance in the future.

 

 

53211463666_0aeb3cb4a3_z.jpg

 

painted the  spot to monitor..   notice the rubber grommet showing the amount of clearance.

 

 

then I drove 5400 miles to Michigan and NY and back.  ( also hauled 750# back w me, really over loaded the car).   Got a little hum from the drivers wheel bearing area half way through the trip.   Thinking that shaft wobble might have caused either the outer cv joint, or wheel bearing to begin to fail???

 

 

Now I’m really anal about my cars running as they were designed.  Especially the 80’s Japanese cars since they were built so simply, and well….

 

 

53505824324_db3da43793_c.jpg

 

and this is the extremes of my analness….  I’ve collected 37 axles over 30 years.

 

Since the 2020 rebuild, I believed there to be three paths to replacing axles.   1) Chinese new. 2) rebuilt axles (reman). 3) finding good Honda axles never previously rebuilt, and reboot them.   My gut was best path was to buy as many original Honda axles possible, QC tolerances and select best sets to reboot

 

 

53504630057_8d5fb2bcd0_c.jpg

 

I placed each axle in this set up.   Measured the slope w the red channel wrench….  Converted to rotational slope in degrees.   I’ll publish findings later.  Need to find a way to easily quantify this data.   
 

bottom line, I used the NOS axles as a baseline (.7 degrees slop), compare the against my original 259k axles I removed from service. ( 2.85 degrees slop - and still good working, vibration free, click free joints).  This gives me a range of working axles.

 

now I remeasured these axle sets this recent go around (NOS & original 259k axle sets)  I’m getting a 20% measurement delta.   So each time I quantify measurements in the future, I’ll start w these 2 sets as a relative starting point.   The obvious variability is how much pressure I apply to the channel wrench varies.   Yielding different measurements 

 

 

Out of these 37 axles, I probably have 3-5 really good sets I can reboot yielding 1 to 1.4 degrees over each axle.  This range seems to be consistence w 75-100k used original axles.  This judgement comes from several axles I was able to obtain mileage from the junkyards.

 

another note, I had 6 of the drivers axles w paint rubbed off the shaft just like mine did from impacting the torsion bar housing.   So this is a common issue.   Maybe 1 in three cars.   But could be due to axles collected from junkyards by rebuilders were from accident cars stressing the engine mounts on impact causing the paint to scrap and bending axles.

 

I’ve labeled and quantified all these axles.  So I can grab from the stock as I need to for the other cars


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#6
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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I didn’t think I would get through these used axles before the Florida trip to sort out a good one for rebuild.  So I worked an alternate route.  I was able to get one of my local  auto supply houses to order 3 drivers axles rebuilt.    I selected the best of he three.  Basis was to rotate the inner/outer joints…. And pay particular attention to the outer joint.  If it rotated rouge, then it was pulled apart and reground..   I selected the joint that felt tight and rotated smoothly

 

After getting the reman axle home, i removed the boots to inspect the joints…..

 

53505518751_511804a88e_c.jpg

 

The inner joint turned out to be near perfect w little wear.  I’m pretty sure this is OE.  The pen shows the contact point of the bearings on the tulip.   Rubbing my finger over this spot, I can’t feel any depression into the metal from wear at all

 

 

 

 

Then I open the outer boot..   Cleaning the grease out…. Had about 10 drops of clean water drip out.  SOBs at the reman company power washed the joint, didn’t let it dry.   Just slapped grease back I got the joint.  After solvent cleaning the outer joint and blowing w compressed air…. I inspected the balls and races…. All looked good.  No scoring for grinding.

 

 

 

I placed the shaft in my straightening fixture.  This reman shaft had the paint scraped off near the torsion bar housing.  And it was bent.   Apparently the rebuilders dont care about axle straightness either.  Too me 6 hours to straighten this axle to near perfect.   It was worth my time as the joints were in such great shape.

 

 

53505668568_6cec2a7fe0_c.jpg

 

another thing the reman company did was paint the entire shaft head to toe.  I used MEK to wipe off as much of the paint as I could.   They even painted the entire inner shaft part that inserts inside the transmission.  And the sealing surface as well where the pen tip points to.   Cleaned this off as well.   Also note in this image the hub seal was missing.   Non of the 3 reman axles has them.   Instead of using nos, I pulled off a good used seal off a low mileage oe shaft.

 

 

53505669998_d27f4b956e_c.jpg

Rebooted and greased the reman shaft w NOS.  Grabbed a set of oe boot bands off one of the used axle sets.  Honda sells inner and outer grease separately.  Their grease tends to be more pliable than the reman grease.  I’d suspect the reman grease comes in 50 gallon generic drums.  Makes me feel better to use OE grease.  My original shafts lasted 259k and could have kept going.  I’m a believer in Hondas design and reliability engineering 

 

this reman drivers shaft refitted w OE grease and boots is now installed into the Beater at 301k.  A trip to Florida is coming up.  Will test out the humming noise…


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#7
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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Some updates

 

 

 

 

AXLE CONTACT W FRAME CAUSING AXLES TO BEND

 

My car was a salvage title back in 1988.  I know the hood and drivers fender for sure was replaced at a minimum.   The drivers fender cracked beyond repair several years ago and I replaced w another used OE fender.  Definite body distortion as I had to bend and shim metal mounting points to get the new fender to remount without bending or distorting the replacement fender.   I’m sure the frame is off a little allowing close proximity to the drivers axle.  Guessing this axle contact might be more of an issue for me due to the 1988 damage.  

 

53539799418_bd67f19bb7_b.jpg

Out of the 37 used  axles, 23 are drivers.  Have to verify, but there were 6 of these axle w scrape damage like this pix.   It’s about 1 in 4 with axle contact.  These mostly came from junkyards.  The accident causing them to be in the junkyard could be the reason for the bending axle issues?…

 

Ive been practicing bending my axles back.  Honda Helms manual says not to reuse bent axles and don’t provide straightness specifications.

 

 

 

INNER JOINT OBSERVATIONS

 

 

53505518751_511804a88e_b.jpg

This is the inside of a good, near perfect inner joint housing.  Pen points to wear area as mentioned before.  The sharpie arrows point to directions of rotation.  Pen shows drive contact and wear point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

53540044180_0f350317ac_b.jpg

 

This is a reman axle I opened up back in 2020 when rebuilding my axles back then.  Pen points to the plain the roller bearings contact.   They machined the surface to refresh.  I assume they used some sort of manual CNC w a jig to touch this up.  Doesn’t look bad.  Looking at is closely, you can see inconsistencies in the machining.  I’d assume would cause excess wear of the new joint.  This joint had little wear as the machining marks are not worn smooth yet
 

 

 

 

53539948094_b4d24951e5_b.jpg

Same housing above w the machine roller bearing in position.  There are 3 slots.  This slot was machined from above.  The roller bearing is oversized OD by .005”.   They didn’t grind the surface all the way down, or did it out of parallel.  It won’t slid down the shaft any further than this.  Another accelerated wear condition from poor craftsmanship.  As I recall, the other 2 slots had OE sized roller bearings w lightly machined slots.  There was a little play.  I’d assume this joint would be ok.  Wouldn’t last as long as an unmolested OE.

 

twist tie is holding the roller together as the side clips were removed.  Can see the clips at the bottom of the joint.  It’s not suspending the roller in the slot


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#8
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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OUTER JOINT OBSERVATIONS / DISASSEMBLY

 

 

 

 

 

 

53540046400_5ddd3f31c1_b.jpg

Honda CRX 1G OE outer joint.   Honda did not design these for disassembly.  Looking into the splined hole, there’s a groove where a square cross sectioned circlip snaps in.  I’d assume the rebuilders use a hydraulic press to pull this joint out of the shaft.  This joint came from a 129k crx hit so hard the knuckle cracked.  So I was able to whack on it w a hammer and it actually came off.    I think it was luck in this case.  I tried it on another very loose reman joint.  Pounding so hard, it was denting the joint.  That one never came off.

 

I marked the joint components to keep them clocked

 

 

 

 

53539637541_6b6908e9fb_b.jpgThe Honda joint is like a rubics cube to take it apart.    The cage has a depression molded into 2 places clocked 180 apart.  Lift the cage as high as it will go.  I used a 3/8” extension to tap the far side down as seen to the right of the pix.  Important to tap gently and between the bearings.  Then used a screw driver to pop out the bearings.  Found out the bearings interference fit to the cage.  So they pop out w moderate force

 

 

 

CAGE

 

 

 

53539971329_ceeca809ac_b.jpg

The bearings interference fit inside the cage slots.  Pix of the thicker side of the cage toward the transmission.  Can see the divot machined for the bearing.  The scrape marks I assume came from me trying to tap the joint too hard to pop it apart.

 

 

 

 

53539972744_72b6328609_b.jpg

 

wheel side of cage.  Thinner.  Same concept

 

 

 

 

53539641921_6a8abc977b_b.jpg

I was hitting the 3/8” extension bar too hard and the joint in several locations til I could figure out how to take it apart.  Pen points to the impact of a bearing  on the housing were I messed up and hit it too hard.

 

 

 

 

53539821258_979eb6bd8b_b.jpg

All the bearings looked really good. Some had very faint lines probably from the accident impact.  This ball matches the slot where I left a damage mark on the housing.  Hard to get a focused close up of the mirrored bearing.  The pen points to a smudge to the surface of the bearing.  I’m thinking I can reuse this joint, but reinstalled to a passenger side to negate the wear by using the opposite side.  I’d replace this particular bearing though as that smudge is rough to my fingernail rubbing across it


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#9
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

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INNER RACE OF OUTER JOINT

 

 

 

53539975699_a035251c49_b.jpg

Pen points to grooves worn into the drive side of the inner race.  I expected the wear area to be uniform over a small area as the bearings slide back and forth in these slots making 360 rotations under load.  Assuming 6 ball bearings yielding uniform load.

 

 

 

 

 

OUTER RACE.  / HOUSING OUTER OE JOINT

 

 

 

 

 

53538768357_07190786d7_b.jpg

Similar wear marks on opposing sides of the grooves machined into the outer housing.

 

This outer housing came off my CRX #9 I bought outright from a junkyard before anyone else picked off it a decade ago I’m certain this was the original axle outer joint from a 129k car.  
 

This car was not drivable.  And the inner joint was pulled apart from the heavy impact.  So I have no idea how this axle drove prior.

 

 

I’m thinking these grooves worn into the races must cause the “clicking” as the joint wears???

 

 

MEASUREMENT / BACKLASH ERRORS

 

At a later time, I’ll pop this on a shaft wo the circlip and measure it to see if I can quantify

 

Looking at the inner housing, it feels like the boots help the joint close to the position where the wear of the inner race/grooves would have occurred.  I believe the inner joint mesurement are decent.

 

The outer joint has specific grooves worn in the races by the bearings.  My measurement set up places the shaft in axial alignment to the shaft.  So the bearing  are most likely no in the grooves shown about into the races.  Best I can do at this time.


Keepin' it OEM

#10
greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's

  • Leadfoot
  • PipPipPipPipPip
    • Group: 2018 Contributor
    • Location:Foreign national in TX
    • Drives: 9 crx's: #1 228k 87si beater, #2 concours 25K, #3 108K 87si, #4 98K parts car, #5 213K 87si parts car, #6 84 straman, #7 86si 150k #8 67k parts #9 129K si for straman conversion

I was exploring after market cv joints.  Couldn’t find anything on the inner joints.  Found several part numbers for the outers.  Appears mostly from European market.  I bought some Lobroes from Germany.     Made In Germany.  Hoping their reputation for metallurgy and tolerances holds up.    These are shelved for now.   But figure it’s an option to replace my outers.  Other brands were available, but couldn’t the where they were made on the packaging.  So I didn’t get any others.   I’m sure I have plenty of used axles to pull from to remake several sets of quaility axles to support my cars.  As long as the boots get replaced quickly upon failure, should get 200k out of these Honda axles

 

 

 

53538773287_1d6bb073f6_b.jpg

Notice the heat treatment from the inside of the housing.   I’m certain Honda heat treated the entire joint as I could could not metal stamp numbers into the outer housings of Hondas as mentioned before.  Flattened my hardened stamp.

 

 

The Lobreo joints came apart very easy.  Just grab the cage, rotate 90 degrees and the balls fall out.  No tools needs.  Feels like the Honda OE joints are more stout 


Keepin' it OEM

#11
CSPCRX

Amazing details and information!

 

could be the chassis or subframe that’s bent.  A shop could through it on a rack and tell you.  I had mine straightened once long ago.


Victor
86 K24 Powered CRX SI (SMF Solo2, HPDE-4 NASA & TA-A Time Attack

85 CRX DX totally original
07 Harley FXST Softail

2021 Tacoma Tow/Daily