Blew up another CV joint..., What to do? Options

[yarin]

So I need some advice on this one:

2 years ago a CV went on me during an autocross, drivers inside (tranny side). The bearing race cracked and well, u know what happens then, no power transmitted means flatbed tow truck home. Replaced all 4 CVs with the kit from PMB performance.

All was well.... fast forward to today, the exact same joint blew. I haven't dissasembled for a post mortem but it isn't pretty. Luckily i flat tow the car to events now so getting home wasn't a problem. The car definitely took a beating today, put about 45 total runs (autox school x 2 drivers) on the car before it let go on Avon Tech RA tires, a few areas of the course induced some slip/grip stress.

Motor is relatively stock, probably putting out about 100-110hp crank. AutoX definitely put exess wear and tear on the part, running semi-sticky tires.

So what should I do, replace with another kit? OEM? Beef it up with 944 or heavy duty CVs? Any of you fellow autoxers have a solution that won't cost me a fortune?

Thanks!

[yarin]

All great points once again! How can I manually check the side deflection of the trailing arm? I would imagine I need to induce a rather signifcant force to get any form of deflection. I'll take a look though. Bushings are on my list of stuff to do this winter.

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[Jeff Hail]

All great points once again! How can I manually check the side deflection of the trailing arm? I would imagine I need to induce a rather signifcant force to get any form of deflection. I'll take a look though. Bushings are on my list of stuff to do this winter.

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Easy to do visually and by grabbing a feel.

Bushings, wheel bearings are easy to inspect- just jack up a corner and grab the tire in mid air, rocking back and forth with hands placed 180 degrees horizontally. See what moves. Now change hand position to 180 degrees verticle and try to rock back and forth. If the road wheel assembly still has the same slop or an audible metallic sound wheel bearings are suspect. If only moves in the horizonal grasp look at the bushings.


If something structural is suspected measure the inner sidewall or rim to wheelhouse distance directly above the axle line with the car flat on all fours. This can be done rough with a tape measure.

Jack the car up about 20 inches on one side enough to get both tires off the ground on the same side. If your car does not have much rear suspension travel (lowered) all the better because it will be bottomed forcing deflection making it easier to identify an issue. Check measurements again on the loaded side. What do you see?

Lower jack & repeat procedure for the other side and re-measure.

This will only provide a light loading but should identify if something is moving that shouldnt be.

If sheemetal is moving from fatigue or fracture (inner console ears) the measurement will close by a lot. You need to figure out what the lateral (sideways) movement is? From here you can get a trusted buddy to slowly raise the jack while your head is under the car focusing on the inner ear as you go from level (static) to load.

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