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Thu Jul 05, 2012 1:15 pm

I just got 4 new CV joints to replace the old and wearing CV's that were in my VW. I spent the extra money and ordered the higher quality German lobro brand because I didn't want to have problems with the cheaper Chinese ones. When I unpacked them today, 2 out of the 4 CV's seem to be extremely hard to move in my hand, I can't seem to move them very far from center. The other two are stiff but will move with minimal force. Are the two tight joints supposed to be this hard to move in your hand (with no grease mind you)? It almost seems like they weren't machined correctly and the channels are slightly off. And I know there is a correct way to install the CV components are they are installed the correct way! Any incite would be greatly appreciated. This is my first time doing this. Thanks.

Thu Jul 05, 2012 6:08 pm

I think unllikely there's something wrong with the CV's. Sounds normal to me with new CV's, I've had some that tight. A few times around the block and they'll loosen up.

I'm asuming when you say you "unpacked" them you mean from the box-not that you dis-assembled the CV 8)

Thu Jul 05, 2012 6:11 pm

+1. Bolt 'em up and go for a drive.

Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:23 pm

This is puzzling. I took the new CV joints to my local parts store and asked them their opinion. Although the guy that helped me said that he had no experience with VW specific CV joints he thought they seemed too tight, like the tolerance in the races were too small for the ball to move freely. He said the ones for modern cars are never that tight. I just don't understand how two of the CV joints work well and the other two are very very tight. I would like to try them but if they are incorrectly machined, I don't want to destroy them and then can't return them.

Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:25 pm

your axle is a very "convincing" lever to "motivate" the joints to move. pack them with quality moly grease and drive. new joints are stiff, some more so than others, nothing to be concerned about.

Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:56 pm

ACVWB wrote: This is puzzling. I took the new CV joints to my local parts store and asked them their opinion. Although the guy that helped me said that he had no experience with VW specific CV joints he thought they seemed too tight, like the tolerance in the races were too small for the ball to move freely. He said the ones for modern cars are never that tight. I just don't understand how two of the CV joints work well and the other two are very very tight. I would like to try them but if they are incorrectly machined, I don't want to destroy them and then can't return them.

Local Flaps or local VW parts store? Local generic parts store employees are not of our world. The scarey ones are the ones that pretend to know what they're talking about. So you're lucky. If your concerned I would take it to a local ACVW place and ask their opinion. All I can say is in the many years of buying Lobro I've never had a bad one so it would be odd that you have 2 bad ones.

Do all the boxes look the same and say Made in Germany? Hopefully not another German manufacturer moving production to Slovenia

Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:13 pm

Hey ACVWB, do not fear. I bought four Lobro brands from BusDepot back when they had them on sale ($40 a piece, I think they were). Mine were also extremely tight. Called up my local trusted VW shop (R.I.P. Roscoes) and he said it's perfectly normal. He also told me to leave the curved washers off because the new joints are bigger than originals. He was right, barely got them on with room for the snap ring.
I don't think I'll ever do CV Joints again. It was the messiest and most annoying part of my rebuild.