only thing that has ever destroyed an inner CV on my car was, I think, insufficient driveshaft float when I was messing about with widetracking my ibiza - the end of the driveshaft was hitting the inside of the gearbox output flange and had marked it when I stripped the shaft off - if the shaft binds up when the suspension moves, it seems the inner CV is the thing to fail - the bearing cage shattered on mine which is a very odd thing to happen Badger Bill and a friend of his had identical failures when we were all trying the same mods out How this applied to you I dont know - I cannot think that the camber change would do this but who knows, maybe that extra bit of grip is causing the suspension to work harder and use up the bit float you had an idea anyhow - cannot be part fault as it would be very unlucky to have a string of these
Rob, I agree, an extra 0.5 degrees of camber is highliy unlikely to be the problem (I think). Not sure how I can measure the float? The cup is marked, but thats probably due to the driveshaft hitting it when the race collapsed, so its not easy to see if it was doind it before failure.
What driveshafts? What was the car before the engine conversion? which CVJs did you use? Aftermarket or VW Dealer? Equivalent part or exactly right part number? Supplier? Where purchased from? Sounds like combination of 02A transmission, too long driveshaft and/or wrong CVJ thickness has taken away the float a CVJ is supposed to have and stressed it to fail.
Paul, The replacements were from GSF. The 02a / driveshafts have done over 5,000 track miles without issue. Then, I`ve had 2 fail in 100 miles. What about the quaife, can it fail and if it does, would it cause this ?
the quaife is a very mild diff in reality - they dont lock up like a plate diff and break shafts - its unlikely I'd say, unless fitting it has moved the driveshaft cups out a bit to take up some shaft float
Im going with the same reason as Rob on this. I have destroyed numerous inner CV joints on my mk1 with exactly the same symptoms as you Nige. The inner cv is making contact with the drive flange due to the camber and ride height. I fixed this problem when I went wide track and correctly spaced the drive shafts and cv joint float. Its been over a year now with hard use without a single failure using the same source of cv joints. A friend with a mk2 also had exactly the same problem when he ran the car with lots of neg camber and sitting quite low. He also had inner cv joint failures until he went widetrack and got better cv jont spacing. Only thing I can think of is either take off some camber or try to pull out the track width out a bit. Is the bottom ball joint bolted on with it fully pulled out to the end of the slots on the wishbone? In all the above cases, it was always the short drive shaft that suffered the cv joint failure. Gurds
Excellent info Gurds I`ll measure from the inner face of the wheel bearing to the flange `cup`. I will then adjust the camber and see what it reads, I`ll also ensure the balljoint is as far out as possible. Must have been be bloody close before though, if adding -0.5 made that difference I`m also removing the wishbone this morning to check the bushes aren`t worn, allowing the wishbone to move on right handers, allowing the driveshaft to be pushed into the cup. The driveshaft flanges / cups just pull out don`t they? I have a spare gearbox with unmakred cups, so I`ll change it over, then after a session on track, remove the inner CV and see if the cup is being marked or not, BEFORE failure
The CV cups are held on with a circlip. There is a rubber non-reusable seal that covers it. The cup may take a little force to take out. Gurds
Nige, just a thought here. You say you didn't have any problems until you changed the CV joints. Are you sure you put them together correctly? Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, I don't even know how to change one myself, but just a thought.
Gurds, I have an 02A box, not 020. I thought they just pulled out ? I`m sure they did when I fitted the Diff Alex, I rang steph when I was fitting the 2nd just to check I was fitting it properly, but there really isn`t anything wrong you can do. The face that sits against the gearbox flange is machined, with a slight recess where it seals on the cork washer, the other side is rougher where the boot sits over it
Oops, my bad. Yea, they either just pull out or they have an allen head bolt in the middle of the cup. Gurds
Cool. As I said, I don't have any idea how they went together, so was just wondering if it was possible.
What's the distance between the flanges on your 02A transmission? And compared to the 020 transmission? Because when I measured mine, my 02A flanges were 10mm further apart (ie the diff was 10mm wider) - but then it was comparing a VR6 gearbox to a Mk1 Golf GTI gearbox.
I think you may have found the culprit. Make sure the tracking guy don't move the ball joints during adjustment. Only one way your going to find out if it all works eh? Gurds
the G60 right hand driveshaft is a different part number to the 16v one, but the left hand shaft is the same on the G60/16v. I'm sure I read somewhere the diff is a bit wider on the 02a box? The difference in shaft doesnt explain your issue since the problem is the left shaft? unless the right hand shaft is pushing the box across and the left hand shaft is failing due to higher angles in the c/v since its shorter... So I'd say its the play in the bush combined with the extra camber thats done it! were the C/Vs genuine VAG? left/right 16v/G60 has different inner C/V part number to 8v. (assume stronger?) Interestingly the automatic RV/PF/RP/RH/GU has the same inner C/Vs listed as the 16v/G60...
