I was running two GSP drive shaft CV's in my rig for less than a year, when one broke, right at the splines, leaving the splines and C clip stuck in my diff!

So instead of messing with it, I ordered a new diff, and while I was putting that in, I noticed that the other CV was about to go in the same way the first one did!
Now when the splines shear off its really a pain, and I don't know any way to get them out without at least dropping the diff..

Here are some pictures.


The one that broke





It broke off right at the splines.

This is what came out of the diff..


Here is the other one. You can't really tell in this crappy cell phone pic, but the spines are actually twisting, and cracking right near the base! I will get a better picture with my real camera tomorrow when I find it.



I replaced with one new warranty GSP CV, and one of my spare OEM CV's. I'm positive if I had left the cracking one in it would have exploded soon too.

Anywho, thats my story.. Beware cheap CV's!

I'm positive that if I'd left that in, It would have exploded as well.

 

New CV's use a cheap metal that will shatter just like yours did.

Always always always find used OEM, or reman OEM axles. Never buy new made in China stuff. And if you are still breaking axles, its time to upgrade to something stronger.

 

I have had good luck with napa max drives. And I abuse them. Yours look like pot metal from beer cans

 

I abuse my cv's too, always have them explode at the outer joint. I'd hate to break in the diff I'd rather blow a hub than that.

What i've noticed from oem to advanced, they are both going to break at some point. The oem just break the cage on the outers for me, and the advanced explode the outers.

going today to exchange two cv's at advanced

 

... at least the Advance axles have lifetime free replacement.

 

Mine is coming in Thursday

 

The guy gave me a terrible time returning it, and accused me of abusing them. Saying that hes never seen one break there, and they only way they could have broken there was if they were abused.
To that I said exactly, if they were abused they would have broken at the weakest point (the actual joint) After that he returned the one. The other I removed I'm going to take to a different store in a different town to avoid confrontation.

 

wow that does suck!!! I've had no problems yet hopefully nothing like that for sure

 

Forgot about this, finally got some nice pictures of the CV on the OTHER side of the one I broke, check it out...



then here is a Toyota one for comparison

 

If you look very carefully at the inside end of the spline on the non-toyota CV, it almost looks like the splines were stamped into the metal instead of cut. See how the metal is pushed aside at the inside edge of the spline?

 

and chances are, those axles may just be a little undersized. can you measure the diameter between the bearing surface and splines? the OEM ones look a bit beefier to me at the point where the one broke off. chances are, if I'm right about being undersized, the play allowed it to snap there.

 

I don't know if it this is what happened with you, but maybe the problem lies less with the CVs and more with driving style? I bet most of you guys who are having frequent CV problems may be giving it too much gas and spinning the tires too fast to get over whatever obstacle. When I've seen people break CVs, it's because either they gunned it like crazy to get over something and then the spinning tire came to a violent stop or they hit the gas hard when the steering is at full lock and the tires are wedged up against a rock that won't allow them to spin. In fact, I saw it happen this weekend. I've wheeled mine for almost a decade (and pretty hard for the least 2 years) but I've never broke a CV (but I've definitely broke a few other things). Maybe I'm lucky, but I do keep these rules in mind and so far it's been working.

 

yeah but will they pay for your hubs or diff if they break and take them out along with the cv?

 

xxxtreme22r - doubt it, and some of these "lifetime" warranties only cover parts, not labour. Not so bad if you're a hands on DIY kinda person but shop rates being what they are, sometimes it's better to pay more for a part that will actually last.

 

Oh I know that, was just trying to make a point in that it doesn't mean a whole lot that something might have a lifetime warranty, especially if it will take out other things if it fails, an alternator is one thing, but a cv or timing chain kit is another, I don't know if I would skimp too much on them.

 

Maybe I've been lucky, or they are so cheaply made that they always break at the cage rather than in the diff. In my opinion, I'd rather have it be a little bit weaker at the cage than a stock axle .... less chance of it breaking off in the diff. I've gone through at least 6 cv's from advance, which would really add up if I was buying OEM cv's.

 

You are correct. If you look in the vendors section, there is a guy who will be selling some chromoly 86-95 CV shafts that are made from the same stuff as Longfields.

James