Its just like changing tires side to side, they rotate one direction on one
side then to opposite on the other. I have have swapped CVs on Rabbits and
Jetta many times.  Repack'em and go.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence Johnson <larry_avery.johnson@SYMPATICO.CA>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Friday, April 21, 2000 12:47 AM
Subject: Re: FW: CV Joint Swapping

>Rusty,  take a pencil and visualize it as your right side half shaft: with
the
>eraser at the transmission and the point at the wheel. Now mark an arrow on
the
>eraser in the direction that the transmission is trying to turn the shaft.
Now on
>the pointed end, mark an arrow in the direction  the wheel is trying to
resist
>rotation. These two arrows should be pointing in opposite directions. If
you were
>to simply "Flip the axleshafts end-for-end" then the arrows would still be
>pointing in the same directions. This means that the force from the
transmission
>and the resistive force from the wheel would still be wearing the CV joints
on
>the same ball races. However, if you took your pencil and visualized it as
the
>left half shaft, you would see that both the transmission force direction
and the
>wheel resistive direction are opposite to the arrows on the pencils. This
means
>that the CV joints would be wearing on the other side of the ball races.
Almost
>like having new joints. Should buy you another 50-70 thousand miles (well
lubed
>of course).
>Larry
>
>Rusty Johnson wrote:
>
>> Flipping the axleshafts end-for-end *will* reverse their direction of
>> rotation.  (Whether that will help them last longer, I do not know.)  To
>> visualize this reversal, hold both hands in front of you, level, and
extend
>> your thumbs and pinkies as close to straight out as possible, leaving the
>> other 3 fingers curled a little bit.  (I really am going somewhere with
this,
>> so bear with me.)  Your hands should look like the following ASCII art:
>>
>>         fingers
>> pinkie _III_  thumbs _III_ pinkie
>>            I I                 I I
>>            I I                 I I
>>        left arm        right arm
>>
>> Now, pretend your hands are the axles.  Your thumbs are pointing toward
the
>> differential, pinkies toward the wheels.  Your remaining 3 fingers on
each
>> hand are curled in the direction of rotation for forward travel, right?
If
>> this isn't clear, try this: bend your wrists as far up (back) as you can,
>> then flop them down while trying to keep your extended pinkies and thumbs
in
>> the same place, as though "rolling forward" (you have to lift your
forearms
>> slightly as you bend your wrists down).
>>     Now, let's flip the "axles" end-for-end -- rotate your wrists so that
>> your pinkies point in, and your thumbs point out.  Notice that now your
other
>> 3 fingers on each hand point *backward*, that is, opposite the direction
of
>> rotation for forward travel.  Flop your wrists again to make this clear,
if
>> it isn't yet.
>>     Besides, it's good exercise for relieving Carpal Tunnel Syndrome :-)
>>
>> Rusty J
>> '80 WedgeFalia -- The mysterious "Smoking Van", from The Vw-Files
>> "The Fahrvergnugen Is Out There"
>>
>> >Steve Sullivan wrote:
>>
>> >>                 Wrong. Wrong! Whattayamean, wrong? Seriously, I did
swap
>> >> mine end for end keeping the same axle on each side. Will something go
>> wrong
>> >> because of this? Do I have to go under there and swap them back.
PLEASE
>> tell
>> >> I can just leave it as is. . .
>>
>> Per Lindgren replied:
>> >You can leave as is, but it will not reduce the wear in any way, the
wear is
>> >just like before you turned them around.
>