818 new axle assembly question

[dougkirkbride]

just wondering..... i assembled my new axles as described/shown in the manual. my donar is a 2006 wrx wagon, the passanger side going into the transmission is the "traditional" CV joint with all the small balls in the joint. The driver side has the three lobes on the can and the guts consist of the three larger rollers. reading the manual......kind of late now since boots are on and everything i thought was finished.... i see that you are supposed to mark the orientation of the rollers with the lobes in the can so when you reassemble it you put the roller back in the can in the position it was originally in. i failed to do this. Does it matter?? are the positions on the lobed can different? or does the manual just want you to reassemble the same due to not changing the developed wear points.?

the only reason i question this is because the two joints that are different (both feed into the transmission) feel differently when you "play" with them off the car. the traditional joint with the small balls rotates very uniformly at an angle. the lobed joint with the rollers feels a little different, but still rotates at an angle, it feels a little looser. Is this something to be concerned about?


here are the 2 axles:
normal can:
image.jpg

lobed can:
image.jpg

[wallace18]

Do not forget that you will use the front inner CV and the rear outer CV with the supplied FFR axle shaft for you 818. I think you will be OK if you did not mark the joint. as long as there is not a lot of wear. In that case you would replace it IMO. I hope this helps you out.

[longislandwrx]

I didn't mark the lobes when I did the front boots on my WRX, you'd have to number them 1/2/3 and mark the outsides... it's held up so far... just pack the grease well and I think you'll be fine.

[Goldwing]

I didn't even think of marking the lobes. Just inside and outside. I knocked them over which scrambled my system, so mine are either all correct or all reversed, lol. Oh well, if it matters, we'll have a CV replacement party in Ohio in a couple years.

[Rasmus]

I knocked them over which scrambled my system, so mine are either all correct or all reversed, lol.

Lets see. There's 3 ways that the spider can fit into the CV joint. And there's 3! (read: three factorial) ways the rollers can be arranged onto the spider. Plus each individual roller can be arranged up or up-side-down on the spider or 2! x 3 different ways to flip them. So in total: 3 x 3! x 2! x 3 = 108 ways to arrange a 3-legged spider CV Joint. So given parts randomly one would have ~ 0.9% chance of assembling it the way it came from the factory.


So Party in OHIO!

[dougkirkbride]

thanks for all the input.... my worries are eased. if there's an odd clicking noise the first time i go down the road I just might know what it is? it would be party time!

[longislandwrx]

If it makes you feel better, I once forgot to replace the snap spring that keeps the rollers from pulling out of the CV and reinstalled the axle on the car. I was cleaning up my tools and found the snap spring.

had to cry a little inside.

I installed in with the axle on the car, would have been no big deal except for all that **** grease! What a pain in the ******* ***!

btw I actually typed those stars, I'll save the forum the trouble.

[Rasmus]

I was cleaning up my tools and found the snap spring.

had to cry a little inside.

So true, and so funny. I can just imagine the poor sod that put one of these flat-4's together and forgot to put RTV on the mains. "Why's there water in my oil pan?"