Many have commented about NOT putting the balls back into the original
grooves. That aspect of the maintenance of the CV's is one of those GOP
things. Not a political statement, in this case GOP does not stand for
"Grand Old Party" but instead stands for "Good Operating Practice". It
is the cherry on the topping on the cake. It is that little extra thing
that makes the job better than the next guy's.

Consider that the balls and the grooves wear together. They develop a
"wear fit". If you swap the balls around, the fit is now disturbed, and
the balls and groves have to "wear in" again. At the outset, in the new
"ball-in-groove" relationship the wear will be high until the fit has
been worn in. All of this is going to produce extra heat of friction,
and wear, making the parts more loose than in the original position.
Additionally, there will be increased vibration, which in turn will add
to the wear. Now, as a practical matter, there won't be much if any
initial apparent problem of any sort. The CV will prol'ly run many
thousands of miles with no obvious problems, but over time, the life of
the CV will be shortened. It all boils down to how much you care about
the condition of your balls.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver who wants his balls to last forever.

Rob wrote:
> I'm doing CV joints, buying a tube of grease rather than the 4
> initial bags of it was my first (and only so far) mistake. I had to
> put about 1/4 of the tube into a ziplock sandwich bag, zipped it shut
> and cut a corner off to squeeze it into the joints.
> My pitman puller worked GREAT to pull the joint off the shaft, I had
> to take the joint apart first but it works well with zero stress to
> the parts.
> Good directions in the Bentley for reassy the joint.
>
>
>
> Rob
> becida@comcast.net
>
>