> My all have more than 100k miles on each, and I have three Vanagons, one
> a Syncro -- 24 CV's on personal cars.  I seem to replace these on other folks
> cars more than mine, but all four of the joints on my Honda were needed at 
> about 140k.  The only Lobro complete failure I've seen was the cage cracking.
> 

The hose clamp line is ludicrous BS, and I note incidently I'm not 
100% sure that the origional VW OEM boots were even clamped period, I 
think it varied year by year.  No way that could have unbalanced a 
driveshaft sufficiently, make me more worried about the fact that 
these new Lobro joints are South American in manufacture, even the 
one on you friendly dealers shelf.  I've seen total joint failure of 
inner race, in the '81 never likely greased since new.  Failed on the 
way home, a ball galled, thats real hard to do, but actually it still 
worked I drove 100 miles on it easily.  Actually as I've said many 
times the T2 joint quality and hardening seem spotty and erratic over 
the years at best, I've seen '76 like new at 125k and '85 shot at 75k 
go figure.  To the origional poster I'd be looking for a better 
reason like something permitting the joint to go beyond its operating 
angle frequently,  incorrect (overly long) shocks, missing bump stop 
something like that.  No way a properly greased joint even SA 
manufacture should fail catastrohically in under 50k.  And I've used 
Transforms rebuilds sucessfully for some time now in quite a few 
vehicles let alone their new.  FWIW it like to use a good quality 
nylon cable tie on the inside as I buy my OEM boots for $7.50 each 
without clamps/grease.  And despite old wives tails to the contrary 
I've never had a cable tie loosen up on me on many cars in many 100's 
of thousand of miles, and the cable tie weighs less (gigggle) than 
the factory crimp clamp.

John
vwbus@netbiz.net