Prepping for the Florida Trip......
The car's front left wheel area started making a slight humming noise half way through the last trip to Michigan/New York. I was concerned I might have messed up restraightening that axleback in October causing either the outer joint or wheel bearing to prematurely fail. I had started an axle rebuilt post of RPR a while back. I'll update that w the detail and theory behind how I've been collecting the least used Honda OE axles that have never been rebuilt. The remanufacturers regrind the races, remove the surface of the hardened steel, install larger bearing yielding joints that will ultimately fail sooner. So I'm not a fan of remans. Since Honda NOS axles are no longer available, that leaves chinese after market axles. I've not heard good reviews of these chinese axles either. IMO, its worth the effort to rebuilt the best used OE axles I can find.
RPR axle rebuild post: (to be update shortly w procedures and data collected on some 30 axles sorted through)
the spot I straightened the axles last October. Bending caused from axle impacting torsion bar support here.
I wanted to isolate the noise. So I pulled the drivers axle (axle pulled was an NOS when installed 30-40K ago and still felt very tight -- thinking now this was not the problem) . And started the axle science project. I pulled 25 years worth of axles collected. The past 10 years, I've purchased only used OE Honda axles from the yards w original OE boots/bands. Goal was to hopefully find low mileage original axles to rebuild somewhat close to new.
Got them sorted, labeled with the purchase history, known mileage, noted OE vs aftermarket and serialized each one for ease of future location from stock. I'm expecting to get 3-4 really good sets of axles out of this pile. 2 major observations noticed: 1) the longer drivers axles outer joint appear to wear out faster than the shorter passengers outer joint. 2) The inner joints part number also match the Accord's inner axles (heavier car w a larger engine). Appears the inner joints wear much less. I believe they were manufactured better since used on Accords. My archilles heel is the drivers outer joint. The outer joints don't pop off the axles per Hondas design. I think rebuilders used presses back in the day?? I think I've found a way to remove good outer joints on a passenger shaft, then replacing that good joint for the more worn drivers outer joint. more to come on this later. It'll be a destrutive process. Thats also why I collected all the axles.
2 months ago. I didn't think I was going to have the time to sort through the used axles. I went to the local parts store. They ordered in 3 reman axles for me. I bought the one w the smoothest joints (assuming never been rebuilt) with the least amount of rotational slop.
I placed all these axles on the vise measuring/recording outer/inner joint rotational slop. (detail in the RPR post to be updated shortly).
This is the set up i use to measure joint slop. I measure the slop at the end of the pliers and convert to axial degrees. I start w NOS Honda axles. These yield about .35 degrees of slop per joint or .7 Degrees per axle. I use my original 259K OE (2.85 degrees total axle slop) as the high end range. Realistically, the best used OE axles I can find are between .9-1.3 degrees over the entire axle.
To my surprise, the reman axle I bought 2 months ago measured near best of the 30 axle group. So I opened the reman axle's inner joint to see if its been reworked to a crappy hand machined interference....
To my surprise, the bearings were smooth and all measured the same. This pix shows the inside of the inner tulip. Can see the surface blemish where the roller bearing contacts. Rubbing my finger over the surfaces, I can't feel a thing. This inner joint was a lightly used original OE joint.
Next step, removed the grease out of the outer joints. Surprisingly, about 10 drops of water came out of this reman joint as I was removing the grease..... disappointing. Solvent cleaned them, blew compressed air, inspected races/balls best i could as I couldn't disassemble. This joint looked great as well.
Rebooted/greased this reman axle w Honda NOS plus added honda bands. Appears this was a really good original OE axle acquired by the rebuilder I got it from. Its now installed in the car. I'll see what this trip yields w this noise issue the cars having.
The rebuilder spray painted the entire axle w metallic gray paint. Used MEK to wipe off most of the paint. They even painted over the polished sealing surfaces of the inner shaft interface to the transmission. Note the pencil point. I really don't want contamination circulating around my tranny oil. Lastly, their axle was bent. Took me several hours to work it back to near perfect straightness. Not happy with this rebuilder. Too many flaws and sloppy craftsmanship. It was a excellent base axle. Worth the effort to me. All corrected now
Took a couple days to sort through the axle stock, qualify and document. Replacement of the axle took 1.5hrs..... I'm not saying I'm doing it an efficient path. But knowing its OE quality, tolerance and metallurgy - its worth it to me
Walked in my son's room. Here's a screen shot off his computer screen of my car from his summer adventures w his buddies. He had fun.