gear oil instead of grease in my cv joints?

Hello,

I pulled the cv joints on the transaxle-end of my axles, and found that they were full of what appeared to be 90wt gear oil. I understand that they should have been packed with grease?

This is the first time I've had these joints apart (previous owner was kind of an idiot, so I'm concerned about what might be going on). The outside of the surface of joints had some oil on it (i.e. evidence of leaking), but it really didn't look like the transaxle itself was leaking. If there was a leak, it must have been from the transaxle into the cv joint.

The axle is a heavy duty bus-style IRS. I just wanted to confirm from someone who has a bus transaxle that this joint is in fact supposed to be packed with grease, and there is not supposed to be a flow of oil from the transaxle into the joints.

Thanks!

Reply to
nospam
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Should be packed with CV grease (not regular bearing grease).

Dane '69 Bug '63 Bug

snipped-for-privacy@d> Hello,

Reply to
Dane Tyler

Yes Dane is right!

Check the cap seals on the inside of the trans flanges. They are probably damaged or missing allowing the trans oil into the CV joint .

later, dave Reminder........ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. Frieda Norris

Reply to
dave

Yes, they should be greased.

Clean off and look at the face of the tranny output flange. You should see the outer section with the bolt holes, an intermediate conical section, and a flat inner portion that is green and somewhat soft.

The inner section is a seal that is pressed into the center of the flange to keep your gear oil from leaking into the CV joint. If that seal is torn or missing that would explain your observation.

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----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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Reply to
Jim Adney

They should have been. Most likely the reason you're seeing gear oil in there is because the axle flange rubber cap is leaking or missing. You may have trouble finding a replacement, I don't know if aircooled.net sells that by itself or not. You may wind up having to purchase a transaxle gasket kit to get those caps. Alternatively, you could clean the inside of the axle flange with some brake cleaner, get

-all- of the old lube out of there, and lay down a layer of RTV over the circlip, completely covering the end of the axle and the circlip. You must remove ALL of the oil from the flange area or the RTV will be a wasted effort. The idea is to keep oil from migrating out of the differential assembly via the splines on the differential gear.

Chris

Reply to
Hal

You need axle flange rubber cap seals available from aircooled.net. Clean the old grease off really well. stick a screwdriver into the old seal and pry it out. apply some orange permatex rtv sealant around the new flange cap. gently press it in with your fingers and get it aligned correctly. gently tap it in a little with a socket the matches the cap seal. let dry 24 hours.

Reply to
Sleepy Joe

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