My inner CV joints are definitely shot and will be replaced. I was pleasantly surprised to find much less wear on the outers. They have the usual polish where the bearings ride. Each joint has a couple spots where a very small groove is barely detectable by running a finger along the channel. Here are pics of the worst spots of each joint.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

What say ye? Can I just move these to the transmission end to reverse the side of the channel where the most wear occurs and keep using them?

On a related note, anyone have tips on pulling a roll pin out of a stub axle?

You can flip them where they are and they'll work fine. It's standard procedure for the VW guys to flip them with every CV service.

Awesome! And I got the roll pin out too.

why don't you put them with the pins pointed down on the open jaws of a vise and tap them out from the opposite side with a drift ?

The pin I needed to get out was stuck in the stub axle which is a blind hole rather than the through holes on the cv joints. What I did was soaked the pin i PB Blaster over night, clamped a vice grips on the pin, then supported the stub axle over the open jaws of a vice so I could tap on the vice grips with a hammer to drive the pin out. Worked great.

Run your finger down the grooves in the outer, if you can feel a divot they're done.
The shiney areas in your pic.

I didn't explain it very well, but that's what I did. There are a couple spots on each outer that are just barely detectable with a finger. The rest are smooth. And the detectable spots are only on one side of the U-shape of the groove. That's why I was wondering if I can get by with flipping these to the other end of the axle to put the wear zone on the smooth parts and get some more miles out of them. That wold also put them on the tranny end where they will be easy to change if they start clunking.

The joints I took off the tranny end of the axles had much more wear. Shiny spots were larger and I could easily feel divots in all of the grooves.

I totally agree, if that is all of the wear and the cages are good, mix up all of the parts and then reassemble with plenty of CV grease. The mixed up parts will now wear on different areas to balance everything out

I just went through this on mine, Total rebuild of all four joints, I was surprised to find one output was missing a roll pin !

I rotated all mine as recommended to extend the life. Super smooth now.

Be sure to replace the gaskets, snore washers, bolts and torque them to 30 lbs. and mark them.

And if you use the crappy Pelican Boots, fill the exposed holes with silicon. Grease cant come out, but no need to get crud in the roll pin holes.

Rotating works but it's a temporary fix, especially if you DD the 914.
If it's only a sunday driver then OK.

Personally I hate servicing CV's, such a mess, so I only use perfect used or new CV's.



Do the other dwarfs sell the snore washers, I just can't see Sleepy doing this?

The boots aren't crappy, they're for a T1 VW beetle.

Flip them and run them.

Those aren't too bad. But like Mark said....if it's a DD then I'd replace cause they are such a freakin mess to repack.

As for CV boots....

Rockford boots or nothing.

http://www.rockfordcv.com/rcvboot.htm