Axle seal?

[Joshua van Tol]

Except that in most cases, it's not machinists rebuilding those  
axles, it's chinese factory workers, or minimum wage workers in the  
US doing it. They take core axles in clean them, and replace the  
boots, most of the time. Sometimes they re-grind the joints, which,  
as others have pointed out, is a risky proposition. I used to wrench  
professionally, and rebuilt axles were a very very high come back  
item, mostly because there's no way to economically rebuild an axle  
properly without replacing the joints, which they almost never do,  
because it would drive up the cost very close to the cost of a new axle.

There are a few places that actually use new joints (www.raxles.com  
is one) but the price reflects that in a big way.

Assuming the joint isn't heavily contaminated, you are better off  
rebuilding it on your garage floor, and replacing any excessively  
worn joints, imho. You can bet the person who traded in the core that  
got "rebuilt" for you didn't take care to replace the axle right when  
the boot tore. They waited until either their shop mentioned it (if  
you're lucky) or until it made noise.

If you don't believe me, go down to your parts store, and ask them to  
bring out a couple of rebuilt axles.  Flex the outer joints (The  
inner joint boots almost never tear before the outer boots, and are  
almost always in good shape.) and notice that they're nice and  
floppy. Now compare to a new one. It will be quite difficult to  
flex.  That joint is worn out already, and it's not even on your car  
yet. Now, if you do install that axle, it might work, or it might  
make noise. It might last 1 month, or it might last another 20 years.  
It's really a crap shoot.

On Feb 28, 2008, at 4:17 PM, thejimrose wrote:

> i'll take a reman, with possible inferior surfaces [albeit on a  
> molecular
> level] built by a machinist on a clean table vs my original,  
> rebuilt on my
> garage floor under my car.
>
> and i think heisenberg would agree with me. =)
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