

| Subject: | cv ball cage: inner or outer chamfer to axle? |
| From: | Gene P |
| Date: | Thu, 2 Jun 2016 00:38:16 -0700 |
Yeah, I have an opinion. Your suspicion that it isn't all that important is correct. I suffer OCD as much as anybody really needs to, and I spent hours going over all the helpful hints and playing with new CVs before installing them. Van Cafe is always helpful but that particular note has gotten way too long and hard to follow. I point to two points, both in the long paragraph that is step 6. One an insertion that is not part of the original note: "(CORRECTION -over the years these outer ball hubs have been manufactured with different configurations of grooves and we have not found a consistency to the way that they are assembled)." So ... disregard the stuff about whether the groove goes toward or away from the axle. The other note, the end of step 6: "Additional note - New Lobro CV's will have grooves on the outside of the outer ball hub that may not match this description - we always install these without disassembling them. We do follow this rule that the side with the greater chamfer always goes toward the axle - it helps guide the splines to line up - we always find that the wide part of the outer ball hub lines up with the narrow parts of the inner ball hub, and vice versa.....but lines on the outside of that outer ball hub - not important." So ... Ignore all the stuff about grooves on the Outer ball hubs. The point about the greater chamfer going toward the axle is about the Inner ball hub (though that isn't clearly stated). Common sense here -- the bevel on the part that contacts the axle helps it find its way on correctly. Now about the cages ... look at one carefully and try to find anything that is not symmetrical. Then look at a CV assembled and see how it works. The balls are contained in the cage openings, but the working is done by their free rotation on the inner and outer ball hubs. Those cage edges, chamfered or not, are not doing anything. They don't rotate against anything, or rest against anything -- how could it matter which direction that edge faces if the cage is otherwise perfectly symmetrical and the edge doesn't do anything? Conclusion: pay very close attention, repeatedly, to the business of wide to narrow, narrow to wide, on the inner and outer hubs. Ignore the stuff about the cages and about the grooves on the outside of the outer hubs.
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