it's a popular misconception that if you reverse
the orientation of a drive axle on a CV shaft, the
bearings will be loaded in the opposite direction
or sense.  A good way to see this is to look at
each joint in your mind and ask what's exerting a
torque on the shaft through this joint under
normal driving conditions, and in what direction
is the twist for this joint going, when you 
are looking at the "face" of the joint.  Then
consider the situation for the other joint on
the same axle, and you'll see it is the same direction, which
means if you flip the shaft you'll end up with the
same situation.

You CAN reverse the loading by swapping left to right,
however, if you have manual transmission for which
the shafts are of equal length.

Also, there may be some value to flipping outer and inner in
terms of the thermal environment.  I'm not sure
which has it worse, the inboard ones in the vicinity
of the exhaust system and heater boxes, or the outer
ones which periodically have big heat buildups due
to braking.  Probably the former.

art walker
ahw@egret0.stanford.edu

Am I supposed to declare my 1980 Adventurewagen?