Gregg Lee

I asked almost the same question a few days ago, so part of this may sound familiar.

My original propeller shaft has a dent in it, and fails run-out spec, but the CV joints at the ends are silent, smooth and have no play. I also have a salvage shaft, that is dent free and hopefully straight. But the rear CV has a small amount of play in rotation.

So I thought why not swap the CV from the dented unit to the "new" salvage one. Factory service manual says replace whole shaft as a unit, so it's no help. But when I remove the end cover from the CV joint, it looks like standard approach of CV sliding onto a splined shaft, with a snap ring retaining it on the shaft. It looks like I could remove the snap ring, remove the boot seal band and slide the joint off.

1. Has anyone done this? Is there a surprise lurking in there under the grease?

2. Assuming I go ahead, I suppose I should "top up" or replace the grease. But what type is it? (Again the service manual is no help because it doesn't cover servicing the prop shaft, only replacing it.)

DogBiscuit

I'm by no means a expert on this but honda has never been a fan of selling parts for their prop shafts.

I have a 1998 CRV that had bad U-joints on the prop shaft and the only way you could get a new one was from honda $750 or risk ebay.

So I went aftermarket and replaced the U-joints with ones made by rockford driveline. The U-joints have been working fine for 2 years now and I just regreased them the other day.


I'd say go ahead with your swap I doubt you run into anything really problematic and swapping CV sounds a hell of a lot easier than Ujoints.

I would use Redline CV-2 synthetic grease (replace the goo that's already in there)


Hopefully it's not your only car if you run into problems during the swap. Don't forget to get new CV Boot bands and make sure you have the right band for the tool you're using, don't ask me why i know this.

Gregg Lee

Thanks.

Is this what you mean? redline cv-2

I knew the boot band issue was coming. So I take you don't like to use heavy duty plastic wire ties?

CoolGuy094

I'm not sure if the boot bands are the same on the prop shaft CV's as they are on the axle CV's, but when I swapped my axle CV's side-to-side I was able to remove the boot bands with some standard pliers and needle nose pliers, and was able to reuse and re-install them using the same tools. I had bought new boot bands thinking I would need them; assuming that removing the old boot bands would destroy them or compromise their integrity, but I didn't end up needing the new ones. Again, I'm not sure if yours will be the same... just throwing that info out there.

DogBiscuit

yeah that's the same grease it's on amazon prime for the same price if you're buying it online.

I wouldn't trust any plastic zip tie on a CV boot

Gregg Lee

Joking. I forgot to add a smile.

Any recommendations on brand/type?

I haven't yet checked if the diameter is the exactly same as the driveshaft (axle).

Gregg Lee

Yes it was straightforward to disassemble. For grease replacement I assume it is OK to flush the old out with mineral spirits?

At repose


Pull out end. Note retaining tabs below arrow. folded flat


Pull up tabs with screwdriver then needle nose pliers


Loosen rest of band and slide off boot


Remove two cap screws holding lid


Pull off lid


What looks like sand is not. Reflections of flash from pebbly grease surface texture.






Splines with snap ring replaced for safekeeping.


Boot band. Looks designed to close at one redetermined length.
Would fatigue with multiple on/off, but maybe once will be OK.
Much smaller than axles.



Inside of lid


CV with some grease wiped off


Boot. Outside of boot reverses up under metal rim. I did not explore
how it is attached, but I don't need to remove it.

Gregg Lee

I went ahead and swapped the CV joints. Repacked the ones I used with Redline CV2 as recommended. The snap rings and splines disassembled and reassembled easily. Getting the boot back over the ridge on the shaft was annoying. The original boot band went back on with tabs re-clamped to original position.

I did not risk removing the boots from the CV. It was unclear exactly how they are retained inside the metal case. Might be crimped. This made regreasing more difficult. I had to disassemble the CV joints to reach the old grease in the boot. It also made reassembling the CVs awkward because the stiff boot interferes with holding the parts during reassembly. The boot makes it harder to see that new grease is complete, so I pushed grease into the boot through the hole for the shaft, then blocked the hole and pressed the boot to force grease into the bearing. Repeated until I could see grease coming through the bearing all around. Then installed on shaft, greased the open side and replaced the end plate. The end plate has a small relief hole for excess grease.

Orientation of cv parts for reassembly is unambiguous. The inner race is asymmetrical, and the "cage" is marked with a groove on the outside end.

The center section of the shaft was surprisingly light. Most of the weight of the assembled prop shaft is in the CV joints. I suppose it shouldn't have been surprising, since except for the splined shafts, the center section is a thin walled hollow tube.

The center section ends appear to be the identical. Both CVs will fit onto both ends. No obvious shape difference or orientation markings. I don't know why you would want to reverse it, but you could.

Gregg Lee

I forgot one thing above. Not only can the CVs be swapped end to end, the cover plates can be swapped between the CVs. The CVs themselves appear to be identical. In other words, the ends of the AP1 prop shaft are identical except for the CV cover plates.

The two AP1 cover plates differ in thickness by 5mm and in the diameter of the raised center ring, which match the inset in the trans or diff flange. Also the transmission end cover plate has cutouts between the bolt faces, whereas the transmission end is flat.

Which makes me wonder about issue of matching AP1 trans to AP2 diff. I have read that the AP2 diff flange has 10mm diameter bolts, and pictures show that it has cutouts in the diff end cover plate like those in the trans end.

I wonder if the AP2 CVs will also fit onto the AP1 shaft? If so you could swap a trans end AP2 CV to the AP1 shaft.

Or will an AP2 trans end cover plate would fit on AP1 CV? If the bolt circle is the same diameter, you could just swap an AP2 cover plate onto the AP1 CV, plus ream the bolt holes through the AP1 CV body from 8 to 10mm.

3CH017

Thank you for this post, Gregg Lee. You have been the most informative that I have seen yet. The front CV joint on my driveshaft is making pop pop pop, rattling, and now loud squeaking.

I am posting for this question. Where can I buy a replacement CV joint for the propeller? I have googled and ebay'ed, I cannot find a place that sells just the cv joint. I only see places that sell the WHOLE driveshaft with both cv joints.

So should I just rebuild/clean/repack like you did?

Thank you and any input will be appreciated!