John Brush wrote:

> Does anyone have a different opinion of the procedure. It seems pretty
> straight forward. When I take a close look, is there likely to be an
> obvious sign of failure, like there is with wheel bearings and such?
>

I was the "gopher" when a friend showed me how to re-pack my CV's on my old
'80. It was pretty straight forward and MESSY. Have plenty of clean rags
around. And I think we used paint thinner to clean parts. There is probably
something out there that is more appropriate. I do recall that we needed a
funky little allen wrench type tool - 12pt. 8mm.

> Realizing that there are all kinds of possibilities, is the failure mode
> for the CV joint catastrophic, or does it get increasingly noisy until I
> can't stand it anymore??
>

I've heard that failure can be pretty catastrophic. Van stops - won't go.
Balls in CV can get crunched up and not allow axle to turn (I think that's
the idea).

Go ahead - dive in and get greasy. Oh, and get that tool.
Good luck.
Peace - donna
'84 Westy (Pepe)