I can't say whether you should just repack or not. If it's making a lot of noise it could easily be damaged. You will have to inspect. And while you are at it, double check that the noise isn't from the transmission.

I already had another used prop shaft. The shaft on the car had a dented center section and was out of spec for run out. So I took the best two CVs of the four, repacked them and put them on the undamaged center section.

To get a CV: Maybe post a want-to-buy in the s2ki classifieds forum. Or beg for one.

Most of the ebay used prop shafts are from salvage yards. Call and ask if they have any with only one good end to sell cheap. (Assuming they are not already mixing and matching to build good ones.)

Ebay price for salvage shaft used is only about $150, so not that much. I'm sure a new CV if available would be much more. Easiest might be just use a salvage shaft, and ideally repack it first, or swap on your one good CV, if it seems to be in better shape.

(I have two CVs left over. They have a small amount of play, but not failed. So I kept them for spares as is, original grease, in plastic bags. If I need them I will disassemble and repack.)

Notes:
AP1 and AP2 shafts have different end plates and bolt hole diameters. Get the right one.
I didn't include anything in my procedure on how to disassemble and reassemble the CV joint itself, because I found several tutorials with Google.

 

This post should be a sticky.

 

I’m rather curious to know what you ended up doing if your still active on this forum. Afaik the CV joint is not sold separately and repacking grease would not fix your issue from how severe it sounds

 

Did you actually replace/rebuild shaft's splines or just replaced stop ring?

 

When the cv joint loses all its grease it grinds down the balls in the CV which causes play. The CVs have to be harvested from a different prop shaft. Buying used prop shafts is a fools errand. Almost all the ones being sold have something wrong with them it took me 4 used prop shafts to harvest 2 decent CV joints. Granted I obviously paid less than the price of a new one, but still, it took nearly 2 months and two aero boots to fix it once and for all.

The splines and actual shaft isn't what gets damaged. It's the balls in the cage of the CV. FWIW the grease on the CV joints isn't great. It gets runny and starts leaking. A good tacky NGLI2 synthetic grease is better, less likely to thin out. I honestly prefer the mobile 1 grease over the Redline stuff.

 

One question. I don’t see any mention of applying HondaBond when reassembling the boot or end plate to the outer race. And yet, when I disassembled both ends this weekend, there was clearly a thin line of gasketing material between those segments. (It follows a convoluted shape, and will have to be a very thin bead.) Without some type of sealant, water will otherwise surely find its way into the joint, won’t it?

TIA.

 

There's a breather hole in the lid.which let's in anything smaller than the hole. Yes you can use hondabond/permatex grey/black(matches the prop shaft) to seal the grease in the lid. Advantage of mobil 1 synthetic grease is its compatible with a lot of different greases. While it's not ideal to mix greases, the mobil 1 is more tolerant to being adulterated.

The prop shaft boots also benefit from a rubber rejuvenator like at 205.

Also the Porsche cayenne AWD's front prop shaft is the same dimensions as the OEM s2k prop shaft and uses the same style cv joints, only the lids are different. Oh the Porsche uses different spline count on the CVs, but the bolt holes are the same and use the same 8mm hex socket bolt.

 

Really? Like even the same length?

Does this mean the P car (P suv) shaft could be used in our cars by just swapping the lids?

Which year Cayenne?

Not that this really helps much. P car parts always cost more than...anything. Even used. But maybe less than a whole new shaft from Honda (which is only way to get new propshaft cv's). And guessing the front shaft on these cars don't get as much abuse, being its the front shaft on a primarily rwd vehicle, many of which only see engagement in snow.

 

They're the same length and same bolt spacing and pattern, the lids are different not 100% sure it would accept the s2k lid because the porsche factory one fits inside the CV and our lid fits over it.

2006-2014 MY porsche cayenne awd doesn't matter turbo or whatever. The replacement ones are like $250 or about $100 more than a used Honda OEM ones. New Honda oem ones are ~$1k. U joint conversion is like 550.

 

So how many miles/years usually go by before this becomes an issue? How do you know? Is it better to re-grease before there is any damage to the balls?