Here's the story. My CV joints are trash after 60k miles.

I put 4 "new" CV joints in my 914 7 years and 63k miles ago. I purchased the joints from transform and they are 914-4 joints with the 4 bolts and the large holes for the pins, not VW parts. I say "new" because they could potentially be rebuilt. I don't know for sure.
Until 2004 my car had a carbed 1911 type 4 motor, 7" cookie cutter wheels with 205-50-15 R compound tires (Yokohamas, then Khumos and Michelins for the street), and -4 CV joints with the otto stubs to run 911 hubs. As of the beginning of 04 my car now has a rebuilt 2.0L E motor with weber carbs, but I've only put like 5k on the car with the six. In the past 5 years I have autocrossed the car quite a lot and run it on the track once at Watkins Glen.
These CV's have always been packed with Red Line CV-2. My repack interval has been about every 25k on the clock which is actually every 20k when you factor in the fact that I run 22" dia tires opposed to the stock 25" dia. When I last repacked them they showed signs of wear, but nothing to get really excited about.
When I started hearing what sounded a lot like a flat spot on a tire, but then disappeared when I put the clutch in I pulled the axles and found the CV joints to be trashed. I mean multiple, large divots in the outer races and lots of evidence of the cage rubbing on the outer race.
Here are my contenders for what I did wrong:
1. Wrong grease. I thought Redline CV-2 was up to the application. Anybody else using it? What is your experience?
2. Too long between re-packings. When I dismanteled there was plenty of grease in there and it still had a nice red/pink color. It's thick and feels good to the touch, but maybe this doesn't mean squat. I think re-packing every winter sounds like a good idea.
3. Expecting too much from the -4 CV joint. Honestly, I did not think that a 2.0L six or a 1911 four would put that much strain on these joints. I do all my own work, on my own time, so I'm not the 4000rpm and drop the clutch type. I drive my car pretty hard, especially on the autocross course, but I don't think I abuse it off the line.
Now that -4 CV joints are NLA my choices seem to be used joints, finding someone to rebuild them ( I doubt mine are rebuildable), or some kind of swap. Looking for your recommendations to withstand the six and R compound 225-45-15's on 8" rims and 8-10k street/autocross/track miles per year.

Thanks,

Kelly

Can't help you....but anyway

Thanks for the bump Kevin.

Kelly

Got to be some aftermarket parts out there for sand rails or baja buggies. I think autocrossing can put lots of stress on the cv joints. I just replaced both inners on mine.
Look in Hot VW mags.

I believe that you need to run a moly based grease. The off-road racing shop near me recommended a 50-50 mix of Swepco 101 Moly and Bel-Ray. The stuff is outrageously expensive but so far its been doing it's job on my racecar. BTW, I am using stock 914 axels with a 3.4 liter and about 300 HP - so it gets a lot of stress.

Steve,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it's my understanding that any grease used in a CV has to be moly based. How often in miles or hours do you repack your CV's?

Kelly

I've been pulling and repacking once per season. Although they looked so good last time that I might stretch out the interval.

Hmmm. That's what I said. Didn't work out so well for me. About how many events are you doing a season?

Another thing that occurred to me today is while shorter tires mean I cover fewer miles than the odometer records, the CV joints and the rest of the rolling components still turn the same number of turns as my odometer indicates. Seems like stretching the interval a bit just because I've really only covered 21k when my odo says 25k is pretty dumb.

Kelly