[dbarrym]

Regarding the "tripod" inner CV joint and the difficulty in re-assembling the roller needle bearing assemblies....

After hearing the various warnings about NOT taking these apart (you'll hate life, kick the dog, etc) - I did, twice, by accident! For about 5 minutes I was ready to kill myself, as I watched the needle bearing bits slowly drip off the CV joint and onto the workbench.

I tried to re-assemble them, and of course the "needles" would not stay in place. Life sucked! How to hold the MANY needles in place long enough to re-assemble the bearing?

Then a bright idea - I had experienced this before, assembling some needle bearings for the main wheel of my homebuilt HP-18 sailplane. The fix?

Clean up the needles and the inner bearing race VERY carefully to remove the old "gorilla snot" CV grease. Then use a good, viscous, thick CV grease (I used RedLine's CV-2 red synthetic CV lube) and your finger to put a medium-thick smear of grease around the bearing race - leave a small "fillet" of grease at the base of the joint. Then carefuly pick up the needles and place them back onto the bearing race. Take your time and push them down against the race - be careful not to leave any space between the needles. Makes sure ALL the needles are there - there should be no gaps at all. Put another good smear on the inner race of the outer bearing (the "donut") and carefully push the donut back into place.

Hint - It really helps to do this without latex or nitrile gloves - you'll get a much better feel for the 'needles'.

Wa-la! Two minutes and you are done - and you can breathe again.

 

[n559br]

Actually it only took me 2 tries to put them all back in place. Luckily I only pulled the donut off of 1 spindle. My method involved pulling off the top c-clip and putting the donut in place off center. As you put more of the needles in the donut automatically centers up. The last needle is a little tight but will slide right into place with a little wiggling. Less than 2 minutes.

Ben

 

[Katau]

I did the same thing by accident, even though I tried to be very careful. I ended up loosing several needle bearings. After sevaral attempts to get a rebuilt shaft, I ended up buying a new cv joint from Ford for about $400. Ouch.

 

[Katau]

[ August 07, 2002, 06:39 PM: Message edited by: Katau ]

 

[mn12]

Well if you have to go through Ford here are some prices from 5-star. The one thing that jumped out at me was the mustang Cobra halfshaft which comes complete with inner and outer CV's. I wonder if these could be substituted?

PART NUMBER DESC LIST PRICE FFCars
F4SZ-4K326-C Joint Inner $334.57 $250.93 each
w/o abs

F4SZ-4K326-D Joint Inner $346.18 $259.64 each
w/abs

F2SZ-4B436-C Outer w/Axle$366.25 $274.69 each
tbird


XR3Z-4K138-AA Axle Compl $366.90 $275.18 each
cobra

 

[dbarrym]

MN12 - Good info, thank you very much!

I "imposed" on a fellow FFR builder and borrowed one of his inner CV's to use.

Anyone have a metal-base (i.e. SC) inner CV or complete axle set they'd like to sell? I can also provide a refurbished (cleaned, painted, new retaining clips, new boot, stainless clamps) MKVIII inner CV in part trade or to help someone else with matching these CV's.

 

[pacemaker]

I got a pair of tripods from CV Unlimited by mail. It cost about $110 for the pair with shipping. Their address is 300 W. Braod Street,Hemingway, SC 29554. Phone: 843-558-2541.