You are right.  I knew it had to have something to do with the pressures
being felt by the various faces of the CV joint and my cardboard tube didn't
do justice to the situation.

Just to be doubly sure, I stuck some stiff wire through the cardboard tubes
at "C" and "D" and slid my middle fingers into the tube, with the index and
pinky fingers outside, resting against the wires.  Now my index and pinky
fingers played the role of the outer hub of the CV joints and the wires
played the role of the inner hub.  Trying the various orientations again it
was very clear that the pressures were different only when the axle moved to
the other side of the transmission, irrespective the 2 joints orientation.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
---------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben McCafferty" <ben@volkscafe.com>
To: "Tom Young" <tomyoung1@attbi.com>; <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 9:57 AM
Subject: Re: CV article now available - I'm confused (long)

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the clarification, this is exactly the feedback I'm looking for.
You are correct in stating that I didn't intend "rotation of the axle",
rather, "pressure on the faces of the inner and outer ball hubs".  In other
words, you're trying to get pressure on the opposite face by moving the
axles around.

That said, I still stand behind my assertions in the diagrams.  While your
discussion is close to the mark, it misses one point--where the pressure
gets applied, not just which direction it's being applied from.  Try it this
way:  hold your hands in front of you with your fingers pointed towards each
other, and interlace your fingertips.  Pretend your left hand is an outer
ball hub, and your right hand is an inner ball hub.  Assume we're talking
about the inner right rear CV for a moment.  As the tranny applies forward
force to the outer hub (your left hand), the inner ball hub (your right
hand) feels that force on the trailing edges.  Now flip your hands over (not
easy to do!) and assume that your left hand is the outer hub for the inner
left rear CV.  As forward force is applied to it by the tranny, you will
quickly see that the force on the inner ball hub is felt on the opposite
faces, i.e. the other side of your right fingers.  The same holds true for
both outer joints.  That takes care of the A-B Tranny C-D to D-C Tranny B-A
scenario.  The A-B Tranny C-D to C-D Tranny A-B scenario can be proven in
the same manner.