While taking things apart for my 5lug conversion, I was taking the stub axle off and found there was NO CV joint gasket between the stub axle and the CV joint. Is this normal or did I just forget to install one when I replaced the axle about 7 years ago. Is there any way to determine what kind of shape the CV joints are in without actually taking all the bearings out?
Thanks, Elliot

This has been an on going debate and I would say it is your choice to use them or not!

Some say the bolts can loosen if you use them and my not if you don't!

Mine had Permatex and no gasket.

I use only high-temperature Permatex with no gaskets. As long as I'm really rigorous about cleanup and surface preparation, I have no leaks. I say rigorous because the first couple of times I did it without the gaskets, I got grease on the sealing surfaces while I was attaching the inboard axle/cv and had the grease sling out of it. About the dissassembly for inspection, I don't know any other way.

It would be cool to measure some degree of "looseness" at a specific angle of deflection and discover wear that way, but I can't do it reliably.

While they're apart I clean them excessively so I can get a good look at the wear on all bearing surfaces for pitting, deep grooving, and galling. That's the only way I know to see what's going on and at the same time get the surfaces clean enough to get good seals with the Permatex (or whatever you use). I like to refresh the lube once a year and always with synthetic grease.

This is not a job I enjoy on the car but it's important to keep those things in good working order. They last a long time that way.

Good luck

This is one job i dread. I don't use gaskets either. I use a thin layer of yamabond as sealant. I also safety wire my cv bolts. I use bel-ray cv grease in mine. My rule is, if the boot isn't leaking I don't open them. I just wish I could find boots that last. The off roaders boots are tuff. Gates boots for instance. I had gates boots on my class 5 car for 3 solid years. And they saw the worse abuse imaginable. Never one problem. My cv's were 930s on the 5 car. And my axles were maxed to 28 degrees. Gates dosn't make boots in a type 1 size which sucks. I have replaced one of my 914 cv boots twice in the last 5k miles. And each time they were german reinz boots. What a nasty job. Last time I didn't even remove the axle to replace the boot. So that was a big plus but it still sucked. I am always on the hunt for a good, tuff, type 1 size boot. I have a buddy who races a class 11 car, I'll find out what type of boots they run. They use type 1 cv's like we do.

No gaskets on my v8 drifter... No leaks, always dry.

I install them and mine don't leak

But then again, I have a tan targa top too

I would think if the CV's are still packed with grease then they would be fine from a lubrication point of view.

S'true but for a few things. If the CV is worn good lubrication will only take you so far. It's still weaker than one that's not worn.

If you have a stock car and baby it, likely refreshing the grease is all you need for a very long time. Boots are porous to some degree and eventually the grease looses it's fluid by evaporation. As well CV's wear metal into the lube so the longer the interval between repacking them the more abrasive the grease is. I'd still inspect every few years and repack them. Some grooving ok, deep grooves, galling and severely worn cages aren't.

On a high horsepower car the CV wear is more important to monitor for obvious reasons, so that's why I do it yearly. I truly dislike the CV-repack work, but with the of't mentioned Nitrile gloves it's not something I'm willing to pay someone else to do. It is close though.

Elliott,

I'd put the proper gasket in there. Use new Schnorr washers and a tube of LubroMoly in each.

Like Ron said... not fun but, in for a penny, in for a pound at this point.

I always use 'em. They're cheap. It's nice using clean ones.

Make sure you don't overfill the boots with grease. Too much grease and the boots becomes brittle and is dead in about 100 miles.

I don't put any grease in boots. But I do fill up the drive flange.