A1 Cardone reman axles: are they really junk?

Not a big cardone fan here, no reason more then how cheap some of their stuff seems.

Like others have said, remain axles seem to be a crap shoot.

A lot of places carry new axles now for little more than the remans.

Kind of a side note an axles in general. The boots start cracking in about 2 years or less. Many years ago, I replaced the oem boots on the oem shafts of my 90 Maxima because they were already out and had small cracks. At that point the car was around 8 years old. Within a couple of years I was doing the same thing. I replaced the boots on those axles 2 or 3 times and finally said next time it is getting new shafts.

Once I went to shaft replacements, I experienced crap joints right out of the box. The car now has new joints with very few miles and the boots failed in less than 2 years. I don't know what is it, our climate, changes on rubber formulas or what but rubber boots just seem to disintegrate very fast now.

Joints are pretty cheap now and lifetime warrantied but synthetic fluid to help the old synchros in the transmission isn't so cheap. So free replace axles cost about $50 to change due the fluid cost.

Early last year our axle problem in the van was so severe that we'd charge each driver an axle fee so that we'd have four or five spares at the event.

...turns out that a K-based minivan lowered 4" with almost 3 degrees of negative camber is a little rough on the driver side joint.

We have the problem under control and learned the following:

1) Many rebuilds use a stamped steel cup for retaining the tripod tracks. They *will* deform over time and the joint loosens.

2) Many rebuilds or new half-shafts with new shafts used a *longer* than stock shaft to "compensate for worn motor mounts". Well, with our modifications, these longer shafts were bottoming out and breaking the springs.

3) Good quality synthetic grease is critical. The more angle you run, the more distance the bearings travel in the track, which means more friction. Once you reach the melting point of your cheap grease, it is all over.

4) Vent your boots... let the excess pressure out. We used small brass tubing clamped under the small end of the boot to allow venting. It doesn't spit grease.

We now only use OE junkyard parts that we rebuild/service/assemble ourselves. That seems to have gotten the problem under control.

It is a 5-speed, yeah. It has tripod inners and ball & cage outers. Lucky for us, all mopar gen two vans use the same length axles, no matter what engine or transmission is in them.

Redline makes a good grease, which is what we use, and there are a few out there. The offroad racing people are experts on good grease, because they run crazy angle CVs at high-speeds all the time. Even Valvoline makes a synthetic grease for a reasonable price. Some are too exotic for Lemons budgets, but the Redline and whatnot are in the range.

We got the venting idea from a guy that builds Formula Zetec cars... and some google work showed that some others have done it as well. I've also seen people use string as an expansion limiter to keep the boots from expanding to the point of contacting something nearby.

Google venting/vented CV boot and you'll see some pictures.

For one credible source, see the bottom of this Turner Motorsports document:

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/image/d … 628CVJ.pdf

Used OE that have been disassembled, cleaned, and re-greased with good grease will work much better than crap reground CV's one get's at he auto parts store.

We run 3 times the stock HP through a welded diff. with at least 4 times the tire grip, and rear wheel drive, on the Metro-Gnome using junkyard Geo Metro CV's and they work just fine.  It's amazing really.

From what i've experienced not all greases mix well together.  I take them totally apart, clean and dry the bits with brake clean and paper towels then reassemble them.  Its a good way to find stuff with cracks, digs, or other ready to fail things the grease would hide.  If you know what grease is in there you could just add it during a reboot but make sure junk didn't get in.  Be careful not to overpack them and make sure you pay attention to the inner/outer cage alignment if its a cv.

If you carefully put a screwdriver under the lip of the boot before clamping it down and try to squeeze the air out it can help.  Some axles are hollow through the shaft and the axle bolt is the last spot of sealing it,  You can squeeze the boot some until the bolt is in and snug.  Then tighten it up.

Silicone helps keep the boots soft.  If you do that on occasion the boots will last longer.  Just let it sit a bit and absorb in so the silicone isn't flung on the brakes/tires/etc.  You don't want it wet to pick up sand n stuff.  If its still wet an hour or so later paper towel it off then give it a bit more to dry.  Be careful spraying it that the mist doesn't end up on the brakes if you do it in the car.  Other rubber conditioners probably work well too, I'd say to stay away from "wet look" stuff though.

Reman axles seem to be a crap shoot.  Some end up good, some are junk.  There might be a driveshaft rebuilder in your area that would do a better job.  Or they might be worse.