Howdy folks, I was hoping I could get some feedback here about the axle bucket swap. I'm to the point where Ive cleaned out the grease from the buckets, and what I am questioning is when I got the driver side axle off, I noticed the bucket had a clear marking with an "R" on it. My first thought was "shit I hope this hasn't already been done. After inspecting both buckets, I can't seem to tell a difference between the two. I was wondering if you guys could take a look at some of the pics I took and let me know if I should still go ahead with the swap, or if they have already been swapped, maybe just replace them.
To give a short back story, I picked up the car a little over a week ago and noticed that there was some vibration from about 40mph and up if I give it the beans, if im just cruising it is fine. I read through the DIY for the bucket swap, and I assumed that is what it was. The car has 127k miles on it, and judging by how tough it was to get the right axle out, the swap had never been done but once I saw the "R" indicated on the driver side bucket I am now skeptical. Any feedback would be much appreciated, thanks!

driver side that came off indicated with the "R"






bucket that came off passenger side


I can always snap more photos if you guys need to see more.
Thanks in advance!

 

The pitting I can see at least on the first one came from being on the left side of the car. If there are no pitting marks on the other side of those bearing surfaces then that one would work fine on the right side of the car now.

On the second one, second pic unless that is a fingerprint of some grease it looks like there may be pitting on the surface that would occur if it were on the right side of the car. So just going by the ones I see if you swap them they may work, but cannot see all the bearing surfaces in the pics

The diff turns the bucket in the forward direction of the car, so the faces of the bearing grooves that face the front on a given side are what get damaged since that is what is pusing the tripod around when moving forward. So in the first pic, imagine that being on the left side and you are looking into the cup. That big nasty pitted area you can see would be turning towards the front when the car is moving forward, and in turn that side of the bearing groove is "pushing" the tripod around in the forward direction. So look up and down each groove on both sides of it and take note of where any damage is. You can figure out which direction the cup could work in now. When you swap them you are effectively trying to put the pits in the reverse direction so when under the heaviest load (forward) it will not be noticeable.

 

oh and if you see at least one pit on opposite "Sides" on a given cup then it has already been swapped. You could do a 5mm axle spacer then and possibly still use them assuming the pits are the same depth.

 

I picked up a couple of those about 6 months ago on BK Honda website. I have not checked if they still have them. You can also get the entire axle both right and left and do it all.

 

DANG those are pitted

Try using axle spacers

But...I'd get new cups.

 

at the point i'm at, I have the driver side installed, everything to the axle nut. The passenger side however is a different story. I got to the lower ball joint, and I can not for the life of me get it to stay seated, when I finally get it lined up and go to start threading the castle nut it pops out. I had to give up for the day after struggling with the passenger side lower ball joint. I'm not sure if it is worn/damaged, and maybe that needs to be replaced. At this point im tempted to just purchase new axles, lower ball joints and call it day. after all its just money. I will come back to it in a few days. If I decide to replace the lower ball joint, I'll probably do both. If I replace the lower ball joints, im assuming the old ones need to get pressed out, and the new ones need to get pressed in?

 

The ball joints spin, to thread the castle nut back on you have to stop them from spinning. One way is to use compression, like a c-clamp, or the scissor jack. If you have long thin pliers, you can wrap paper towel around the teeth and use them to hold the ball joint at the root, once you get enough threads to see the slot for the cotter pin, you can insert the pin and use it to keep it from spinning.

If you want to replace the cups you can buy used axles for half the price of a new OEM cup. The pitting tends to happen on the passenger side first, so buying driver side used axles is the best chance to get a used cup in good condition.

 

I'll give that a go and see if I can get it to bite. I had zero issues with the driver side when it was going back together. Thank you very much for the tip!

 

has anyone had any luck with the rear axles from ballade? They call them OE style and looks like they're essentially reman axles with mostly OEM parts. Same with the lower ball joints that they sell, has anyone tried those out?

 

If you replace the ball joints make sure they come with a snap ring or you tack weld them in place. Some peope get away with it on the lowers, but out of safety, if you don't secure the ball joint it can pop out of the knuckle or control arm.