[66fstbk]

I have a leaking inner CV joint (plunge joint) after about 30 miles. The rear is out of an 89'T Bird SC.
The first question is does anyone have a proven method to seal the crimped on sheet metal tube that transitions the tulip shaped housing into a round shape that the rubber boot clamps on to. Mine was loose when I got it off the bird. I used a hammer and screwdriver to "recrimp" as best as I could. It still leaks. Thought about trying to fill the gap with silicone or epoxy.
The other way to go is a replacement axle and just use the cv joint. I ordered a Cardone 60-2125 which has a reworked boot assy which deletes the "tulip to round" adaptor. The problem I encountered is to my suprise my origional Bird axels are not 28 spline as commonly quoted on this forum. They are 36 spline. If these are oddball axels why did the FFR pin drive axels fit?
If anyone knows the answers to either of these issues, I would love to here from you.
Also I just ordered Cardone from NAPA with a different PN (40-25094). I looked this up on the Cardone and cannot find it?

 

[Bob Cowan]

I use hose clamps on the boot instead the crimp type. Seems to work better.

On the large end, I use two hose clamps with the drive 180* from each other.

 

[66fstbk]

Bob The leak is not from the boot. I didn't explain well enough. The leak is between the metal adaptor and the machined joint case. The boot seal is fine.
How many splines do your axels have?

 

[Richard Oben]

This is why we delete the metal part with the new boots. The only way to seal is to clean a bunch and then get some silicone around the whole thing. Or swap to the other style boot. Seen below.

HTH, Cheers Richard.

 

[66fstbk]

Thanks Richard. This is how the rebuilt axel is done. However it doesn't fit due to the 28 vs 36 spline issue.
How about the number of axel splines. This has me worried that the FFR supplied may not the same as my set up and are going to fail.
Hoping somebody can shed some light on this. The original axels have 36 splines both ends of both axels. I have never heard of this.

 

[66fstbk]

OK I think I resolved this 28 vs 36 spline issue. Chock this up to my being to literal sometimes. The axel shaft, the single piece of steel between the CV joints in my case is 36 splines. The stub axels that stick out of each CV joint are what people reffer to which in my case is 28 splines. I thought I had something weird but was counting the wrong splines.