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Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:52 pm

i have the shaft and the joints out of the car, and i put two new joints on. one joint moves fine. the other joint doesn't want to move at all. i can pound on the body, but the only thing that moves is the cage inside? why wont the body move? no matter how hard i pound on the body, it still remains lined up with the shaft. apparently i need that joint to move in order to install it in the car. what's going on?

Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:11 pm

Joint is assembled wrong.It will fit together wrong, but it won't move once it's assembled.

Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:24 pm

will the cage still move if it is assembled wrong? when i took it from the box (brand new), one of the balls popped out because i angled it too much. will it still do that if is put together wrong?

Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:01 pm

I think you put it back together wrong or someone at the factory assembled it wrong, which is hard for me to believe. If you look at the CV , from it side, you see on the outer part of the CV, there are slots, with wide sections and narrow sections of metal seperating them. On the inner part, that slides over the axle splines, you will see the same slots, with wide and narrow sections or metal seperatiing where the balls go.

The correct alighnment of the outer part and the inner part, as the cage does not matter in this , as it will only go in one way and you cannot mess that third part up, is the wide part on the outer piece matches up with the "narrow" section on the inside small part. One would want to place the CV together logically with the wide and narrow spaces matched up, but then you get if together and find the CV will not function. So, check out the arrangement of the secions of metal you see between the slots that the balls fit in and that will tell you if you have one together correctly or wrong. We used to keep the old ones and bet our drunken friends $5.00 they would not put they together. It is harder to put them together the wrong way, easy if you follow the above instructions. By the way, new CV's are hard to move, since they have no play in them. But, you can push the axle in and out, to test them. But, not easy, on the new ones.

I remember the first new ones I bought, I called up the parts place and said there was something wrong with them, as they were so tight on specs. But, that was only because they were new. In you case, I think you may have mixed up something.

---George4888

Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:15 pm

thanks guys. i took it apart and assembled it your way george. it works! and to believe, some moron at the factory put it together wrong. oh well.

Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:09 pm

Wish I had seen this old post a few days ago. Just bought new Lobro joints from the Bus Depot. One of them did not match the others and was not stamped "Germany". Had a ton of trouble getting that last one installed on the car, would not tilt. I just thought it was new and stiff. Then the wheel would not turn without the suspension going up and down an inch or so when car was on jackstands. I just figured it would loosen up after a few miles of driving. After 50 miles it is still like that.

Spent a couple of hours searching the Samba and found this post. I didn't even know the joints would fit together backwards. Mine must have been backwards in the package. I'm amazed that it hasn't broken yet. Very curious to see what I find when I yank it back out of the car!

Yesterday 2:31 am

Really nice to see how smart I was in 2005. I am happy this post helped someone to think and look carefully at their new parts. If you bought a rebuilt CV axle assembly human error might have got involved. From the company that made most of these, back in Germany, I doubt they made mistakes. I read that twisting the CV joint more than 22 degrees will cause those metal balls to fall out and a reason why you see slip joints and U-joints on off road cars, as the CV system has its limits on movement.

Iif you bought only the new CV joints and put them on the axles, by yourself, you perhaps notice getting the thrust washer on might have been hard to do. This is not recommended, but I have had to leave that curved special looking washer off sometimes, to get the parts to fit and found no problems after many years. It seems like there is enough movement in the design of the CV joint to not cause the axle to move in and out to wear the parts. These parts are as strong as a tank, unless you are putting 150 hp engines into your car. Then, you need the bigger type two CV joints or the Porsche ones.

On the "special" Moly grease, you can find it cheaper by looking at places llike Wal-mart and buying a tube of wheel bearing grease. Read the package ingredients and what you want to see is "molybitium disulfide" if I spelled those words correctly. That is the "moly" part of the grease you want in the VW CV joints. They spell it right on the package. Big words, not my thing. Good luck and way to go on redoing your axles.

Yesterday 4:49 am

The grease should be identified on the package as "CV joint grease" though. NAPA has it.

It is different than normal "wheel bearing grease".

Today 12:15 am

Any grease that has the chemical of molybieum disulfide ( spelling ?) in it is made for use in exrreme friction conditions and has a different "feel" to the touch. CV grease comes in different brands and I have seen red, black,gray ,green colors used, but all of the ones from the company in Germany which first made the CV joints, named Lubia or Lorba Lorda, Lurdo , again, my spelling is terrible, this company makes what I consider the best CV parts in the world and their grease, packaged with their CV joint "Kits" looks and feels the same and has the same chemicals in it, as used in the grease, I suggest using. In actual use on my customer's cars and on my own personal bugs, used since 1990, the Wal-Mart ( I own no stock in this company and am not paid to advertise for them) moly grease has worked just fine. I also use it in my high dollar heat treated type two CV joints on my $30,000 race car. I am sure if you read the main chemical used in the CV grease from O'Reilly or Autozone or Pepboys or any of the other well known parts places it will read the same. Some only read "contains moly chemicals". I do not use any without the complete chemical names spelled out clearly in the list of ingredients. I think we all agree that normal wheel bearing grease cannot be used, as it is not designed for the friction or heat load.

YOu make a good point about not using cheaper wheel bearing grease.

Today 5:29 am

Looked it up ...

molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) for constant velocity joints