Driveshaft life

[go-pile-68]

New to this form. Cant find that this has been covered, so here goes. My 89 SHO has 330,000 miles. My question is at what point should I replace the driveshafts with new and not rebuilt. I have allways been good about having them done at the first sign of leaks. But I havent been able to get a clear anwser as to the life of the CV joints. And I am not sure what is replaced when they are rebuilt. Any Ideas out there?

 

[SASHO91]

DEAR GOD!
I think you just took the record for the most miles on a SHO (recorded)....

Are you sure its 330k?

 

[go-pile-68]

Of course its not the orginal engine,its spun a rod bearing at 264K, but its the orginal tranny. I have owned the car since 1991. Yep, bought it with 40k.

 

[Mr Anonymous]

Like many components on the car, they last as long as they last.

When you see torn or leaking boots, or start hearing/feeling noise or vibration then you'll want to replace them, otherwise just leave them alone. And there's no reason to go with new ones, when you do need to replace them go with some lifetime warrantied units like those from Cardone and if they ever do give you problems you don't have to pay for the part again.

 

[go-pile-68]

I do pull them when they leak. But they seem very loose at this point. I dont want to jump into it and have one of them expolde because it is worn out. I seem to allways get the anwser to rebuild them when they laek but no one has told me what is replaced during the rebuild and no one seems to know how many miles you can put on as set.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

Seems like the answer to your question is quite obvious, even to you.

If they are "very loose" then replace them.

They are not that expensive, very easy to swap out, and as noted, you can get "reman" axles with lifetime warranties.

With the way most of these SHOs burn thru clutches, Id just assume replace the axles every time the car is down for a clutch job. Quite easy to do with lifetime warr. axles

 

[go-pile-68]

I got it. I will replace with new. But I still dont know how long a set will last. Thanks for your help.

 

[SHOtime2511]

there is no set number of miles when a halfshaft will go out....
it just happens!

 

[Mr Anonymous]

I got it. I will replace with new. But I still dont know how long a set will last. Thanks for your help.

Again, thereis no specific mileage, age, or range to the life of most of components in a car.

If you want to find out the life of the ones you have now, keep driving on them until they fail. Then you'll know exactly how long that set lasted, but it's not going to help you determine how long the next set will last.

 

[38SHO]

well its hard to find NEW CV axles.... But recently one company that comes to mind who actually Makes NEW ones is called CARDONE i believe. We get them through a major parts distributor. Besides that like 98% of the axles on the road are probably still the originals or rebuilt ones....

they are kind of like a torque converter, you can have as much money as god and walk into a Ford dealership and not be able to buy an actual NEW torque converter. It would be a rebuilt core. If you want to spend maybe a thousand or so some companies custom do torque converters, but even still some used parts from the original converter are used.

 

[go-pile-68]

Again, thereis no specific mileage, age, or range to the life of most of components in a car.

Now I dont want to make anyone mad and this is a discussion form, so dont take this personally but most components do have an average life
( SHO SPECIFIC ) ie: spark plugs 100k, waterpump 100k if you are lucky, alternator 100k + or -, Rod bearings 240k to 280k. O2 sensor 100K and so on. But I have never gotten an anwser as to how many miles for a CV joint in general. I have been to other forms and have never gotten an anwser to that. Its just funny, no one seems to know. I know they are cheap but were I was living, deep east texas, no one had them in stock, so I just kept having my orginals rebuilt.

 

[strings1732]

well its hard to find NEW CV axles.... But recently one company that comes to mind who actually Makes NEW ones is called CARDONE i believe. We get them through a major parts distributor. Besides that like 98% of the axles on the road are probably still the originals or rebuilt ones....

they are kind of like a torque converter, you can have as much money as god and walk into a Ford dealership and not be able to buy an actual NEW torque converter. It would be a rebuilt core. If you want to spend maybe a thousand or so some companies custom do torque converters, but even still some used parts from the original converter are used.

Raxles uses NEW joints with their rebuilds, so that's new enough

 

[Shoaz]

For cars this old (no SHO is young these days) the expected average life of any component doesn't mean much unless you know the entire useage history of the car. The type of use, the area of the country in which it's used, etc., make so much difference that "expected lifetime" is pretty meaningless.

CVs definitely fall into that category.