Swapping over driveshafts

twc · Post by **twc** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:30 pm

I am starting to get noisy cv joints from righthand front driveshaft.
I had read somewhere that you can swap the shafts over to the opposite side to prolong the lifespan on the earlier subies (pre 1985?)

I have a 1991 l series . I believe that the steering knuckel is part of the drive shaft on the later models and cant be removed easily at home,(being pressed on and requires mechanic shop presses etc to remove.??)

Is it possible to swap this type over to the other side as well without going to a mechanic shop? Any usefull tips ????

cameron · Post by **cameron** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:09 pm

MY and L series have the same set up. All are removable with a bit of force. Swapping MAY give you a little more time, probably not.

BaronVonChickenPants · Post by **BaronVonChickenPants** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:26 pm

If it's the inner joint you can also pull the joint apart and turn the ball race around, has the same effect but means you only need to remove 1 cv.

The reason both these solutions work is the load of the balls against the race is usually when driving forward so this side wears out first, swapping cv's over or turning the ball race means the side that was previously only used when driving in reverse is now used for driving forwards and this side is usually almost new.

As far as cv removal I drop the ball joint out of the bottom of the strut, not sure how this works on the L's.

The area most people have problems is with the castle nut holding the cv to the hub, it's a 36mm nut which is (should) be tightened to 160ft/lb of torque (ie: 80kg person standing on a 1 foot breaker bar) I have a big 3/4" drive ratchet I use for this, most other things bend or break.

As a last resort (3 breaker bars later) my brother welded a socket to a 6 foot piece of angle iron for his prelude.

Jordan.

wagonist · Post by **wagonist** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:23 pm

I used to use a monkey wrench on the nut to crack it & get fully tighten.

I obviously need to do them up tighter knowing the torque setting now.
Gal fence pipe to the rescue

stamp_licker · Post by **stamp_licker** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:01 pm

I fell for the special press needed story but its not true.1 removed nut 2drop the balljoint
3pull the inner cv off the box 4block of wood and BFH couple of sharp blows just watch the rear bearing don't come out on the shaft. last time i did it took 20 mins ,first time 1 hr.

wagonist · Post by **wagonist** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:22 pm

Usually, its only the first time the shafts need to come out of the hubs that they've a problem.

I used to remove the nut completely, then remove the flat & tapered washer.
I then put the nut on the WRONG way so the flat side is facing outwards.
Screw it on far enough that you've got a fair bit of thread (ie past the castle nut part) & then apply force inwards.
This could range from simply pushing to tapping with a small sledge hammer.
As it works its way inwards, undo the nut.