Hi All. I just tore down my axles to repack my CVs and replace damaged boots. I guess it's not surprising that they had a mix of gasket/ no gasket and Schnoor/ no Schnoor washers. That is a theme with this car!

I found few interesting things that I would like to understand better before I go looking for replacements. I am mostly interested in making sure that the ones I would like to keep (Left Inner and Left Outer) are the right parts, especially the yellow zinc one. And confirmation that the Right Inner and Right Outer are fit for retirement. I have limited experience with 914 or worn CVs ... and really appreciate your help.

Left Inner: This one has a bit of dimpling in the races but not terrible. It has the standard inner carrier (is that what they are called?) with the shoulder on one side. The outer surface has 7 153 100 199 004 LOBRO 41/84 stamped on it. I will likely reuse this one.
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Left Outer: This one is in fine shape but it is an entirely different color (looks yellow zinc plated). There is NO shoulder on the inner carrier on either side. The outer surface has the VW symbol above the number 2. It looks the same in all other respects. Are there any concerns that this might be made for a different car axle?
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Right Inner: the outer surface has LOBRO (in a circle) and 40-76. This one is pretty bad.
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Right Outer: the outer surface has only 44-74 stamped on it. I am pretty sure it is shot as well.
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How many miles a year do you put on the car? Are the cv balls pitted or in good shape? The amount of wear isn't that terrible on the races. If you don't drive the car everyday, more of a weekend cruiser and the cv balls aren't chewed up, I'd replace the boots, add the washers and put the two worst cv's on the left axle where they won't get as much torque when driving. A bad cv will let you know with a clunk, clunk, clunk on accel.

The races look somewhat worn, I would try to find something with less wear, but who knows how many more miles you can squeeze out of these. I am going through the same thing, recently bought a bunch and have been tearing them down for evaluation. As far as I know, new CV joints are NLA.

Keep us posted with your results/findings

What's up with the gasket ones? Mine have parts of a gasket around them, 1 is complete and 1 is completely missing. Do I need the thick fiber ring gasket and is it available?

Yes the gaskets are available and yes you need the little rings. If you don't you will spray grease everywhere with the centrifugal force.

@914Mels The car is defiantly a fair weather driver. I am hoping to get decent use of it during summers but it will not be a daily driver. It will not go on any long trips until I get a few more details settled ... like a pesky oil leak. The balls are all in great shape. Regarding putting the more worn ones on the left does that side really get less torque? Why is that?

@930cabman If you are OK to share, where are you sourcing the axles? I heard they were NLA as well so it might be good to start looking for some even if I put the existing ones back on until they start to clunk. That way I'd be ready for replacement when it finally happens.

@iankarr I think you suggested in one of your videos to turn the CVs around to get more life out of them, presumably by getting away from the current wear zone. It does not look like the roll pins can be put on the other side so I am assuming you mean to flip the axle when reinstalling, effectively swapping inner and outer CVs. Is that right?

Unless you have a limited slip differential, your right axle does most the work getting the power to the ground. That's just the way an open differential works. If your car has enough power to do a burn out, you'd see just the right rear leaving rubber behind on the street.

I find them here, Samba, Ebay, Craigslist, ... and have had some luck finding decent ones, but it's a gamble

I had no ideal. That's pretty cool.

Thank you. Time to start looking...

By “flip” I meant use the outer cv as an inner or vice-versa. Wear pattern will be different. And roll pins will be right side out:)

I have watched your CV and other youtube video's more than once, thanks for posting. Is driving the roll pins to the other side required to "reverse the wear pattern". Effectively we turn the "inner race and outer race" so the wear patterns are reversed. Genius! If I am reading this correctly, we can double the life of these CV joints. Assuming many are close to 50 years old, we can potentially get another 50 years?

Something about German engineering

Great - Thanks Ian!

Good info here!
Thanks robarabian for the gasket info! 914 rubber has them, ordered!

UPDATE …

Hello. I recently got my trailing arm bushings and bearings straightened out and am back to the CVs. I plan to put all of them back in as is while I search for replacements. Driving season is coming!

When I first pulled the CVs, I took a cursory look but did not clean them of all the grease. After sitting aside (each with its own parts) for a while I spent some time tonight cleaning them for repacking.

And … upon inspection, I noted that there are some differences between each.
* Two of the outer races (for lack of a better term) have a shoulder cut in them where I expect the gasket sits. Two have no shoulder. (First two pics, below).
* There are three different inner races between them (second pic, below). One flat with no surface ring and tapered splines on one side, two with the ring on one side and tapered splines on the same side and one with the ring on one side with no taper to the splines.

I have a few questions:
* Do I use gaskets in the outer races with the shoulder but not the others? All four?
* Does it matter that the inner races differ as long as I keep all the parts from each joint together (no mixing and matching)?

Thanks as always for the help …

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gaskets only on the ones with the groove for them. As long as you keep the original parts together you should be fine.

Thank you!

Just closing out thus thread.

I ended up getting new (machined) joints from @914werke . Everything is back together and working quite well.

Thanks again for the help on this.

you might ask Tangerine Racing. I bought some from them years ago.... don't see them on the site now tho.