all I do is check them for rotational play with the balls centered more or
less, in the area they run in the most.
if there is not 'a fair amount' of slop there..
I just grease 'em up real good..
including extra in the boot..
and definetly fill the 'bowl' of the flange with black moly-graph grease (
the stock specified grease is not enough long term ...really )
and rotate them to another position..
ideally .....so they drive the other way.

I believe the inners wear more due to running hotter, fwiw.
I only use Lobro and vw-audi cv joints .
Do what I have sugested here..
and you will not have any cv joint problems for a long, long time.
Uprgrade to the better 12 points screws also.

scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike South" <msouth@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 9:24 PM
Subject: grooves in outer part of cv joint--replace?

> Hi,
>
> I have a cv joint apart (not because there was a problem, I swapping to
> manual-size axles because I'm converting my AT to manual [btw automatic
> transmission plus the stuff you need to convert (like shifter, etc) for
> sale, contact me off list]).  I'm on my third one, and when I was wiping
> the
> grease off of the outer part of the joint I noticed grooves running
> perpendicular to the groove that is supposed to be there.
>
> It actually looks quite a bit like this shot from Ben's cv maintenance
> writeup:
>
> http://www.benplace.com/images_westfalia/assembling2.jpg
>
> However, you can't tell from that picture if that's just a "highly
> polished"
> area or an actual little groove you can feel with your finger.  Mine has
> grooves you can feel when you run your finger down the groove in the outer
> race.
>
> The inner race looks fine, all surfaces smooth, and the balls look ok.
>
> Should I replace this joint, or is that normal wear and not worth worrying
> about?  I have the joints from the donor van available, so I might find
> one
> of them without any blemishes (haven't disassembled them so I don't know
> yet).  In other words, I might not have to order a joint, in case you were
> factoring price into the answer.  Is it worth pulling the other ones apart
> to see if there's a better one?
>
> I don't know if a picture will show any more detail than the one
> above--you
> almost can't tell visually that it's a groove--in fact on most of them
> it's
> more of a "ripple" than a groove.
>
> Let me know what you think!
>
> mike