1998 V70 XC LH Front Drive Axle info

Post by **scot850** » 02 Mar 2015, 16:31

I am currently tidying out my garage of all the c*#p that you tend to collect over time, and found the front LH drive axle from my old 98 V70XC. This was removed, not because it was performing badly, but had split the outer CV boot. Somewhere along the line the thread for the axle hub nut got damaged, but it could have been fixed as it is longer than required and could be filed down or damaged section ground off. I ended up swapping it out as the dealer could not remove the center balance collar to allow them to replace the inner CV boot, so I bought a good used OE axle with good boots.

I decided in the spirit of learning I would take it apart as I have never done so before. I had no intention of rebuilding it as the repair parts wouldn't make it worthwhile as I no longer had the car.

This is mostly for those, who like me, have never taken one apart and mad do at some point, and hopefully you will be less scared by the process and learn from a mistake I made.

: All parts except outer CV boot

The dealer had already remove the outer boot by cutting it off, but I ended up removing the collar by using a small hacksaw blade and cutting the 2 hex bolts that were seized in place. No heating or hammering would loosen them and the dealer had already rounded the hex holes.

Before removing the collar, I scratched the collar halves and the shaft to identify where and how it sat of the shaft.

There are sufficient gaps between the 2 halves of the collar to get a narrow blade in.

I removed the bolt heads by using a large parallel punch holding the half of the collar in a bench vice. The bolt heads were rusted into the countersink area over there full surface, so no wonder they wouldn't come loose!

I drilled out the 2 threaded portions using a pillar drill and then re-cut the threads using an M8 x 1.25mm tap as per original.

I was able to buy replacement 20mm M8 hex bolts from a local bolt stockist for $1 for 6 bolts.

This now meant I could theoretically re-build the shaft as I could access the inner collar to replace the inner boot. Here is where I made my major mistake. I could remove the inner joint to clean and check the bearing races, so found the only way to remove the inner bearings was to cut the inner retaining collar. Naturally, if you are planning to replace the inner CV boot, find a way to clean the inner joint without removing the shaft and bearings. The down-side is you can't tell if the bearings are good, and I would not want to put it in a parts cleaner in case it removed any grease from inside the 3 bearing races.

If someone knows where you can by a replacement collar, then obviously, you could fully disassemble the inner joint to check it out.

: All parts except outer CV boot

This picture shows all the parts of the LH front Axle except for the outer CV boot. Inner joint is to the LH end of the picture

: Inner joint parts.

Inner joint parts. Note the damage bearing retaining collar with saw cut in it to remove. Any suggestions how to remove without damaging?

: Outer CV joint parts

Outer CV joint parts less the 6 ball bearings.

: Outer CV joint and 6 ball bearings

Outer CV joint carrier and 6 ball bearings

: Inner joint cap and damaged retaining collar

Inner joint showing where the retaining collar should sit

: Outer CV joint, showing retaining clip or collar

Outer CV joint bearing collar. The upper part sits inside the lower part, and the ball bearings sit between the 2 parts. Not the retaining ring/collar. You cannot remove the outer bearing without expanding this ring using circlip pliers to EXPAND the ring as you hammer the inner collar to move it off the splines. You may have to use WD40 or some other cleaning compound to loosen the collar to allow it to expand sufficiently to remove the outer joint off the splines.

: Outer CV joint cover showing wear

Wear/damage to outer CV joint. This is after 160,000 miles. Some may argue it could be re-used, but I have doubts if cost of parts v's a replacement unit makes sense. Any views?

: Outer CV joint cover showing wear (2)

2nd picture showing other half of the outer joint and wear.

: Ball bearing from outer CV joint

One of the 6 baller bearings from the outer CV joint. It is dull and dis-colored which to me shows the outer chrome surface is worn.

Anyway, this is not really a how to, but more of a 'How it fits together and the parts it uses'.

Hope this may be of some use to others and feel free to add views or comments.

Neil.

Post by **dosbricks** » 02 Mar 2015, 19:29

Neil,
Very good photos. Thanks for making the parts of this complicated device more familiar. The axle would seem serviceable to my untrained eye since there does not appear to be any galling of the ball or race surfaces, but you have the advantage of being able to do the naked eye inspection.

Did you have the same type grease in the outer and inner joints? Mine were different--the inner being lighter colored. On the passenger side it had retained the same viscosity as the outer joint grease. But on the drivers side it had thickened everywhere except right around the three bearings. I read somewhere that this can happen because of proximity to the transaxle heat, which the passenger side is less vulnerable to because of its distance away and the heat sink properties of the collar bearing. It was suggested by an axle rebuilder that this heat-thickened factory grease was a contributor to inner driver's side failure.

I re-greased and rebooted the '98 S70 at 222k (second time it was done). So I say all the above to propose that if someone's axles are over 200k, and even if never allowed to run "dirty", it still might be worthwhile to reboot and repack them if they wish to preserve the Volvo OEs.

Post by **scot850** » 02 Mar 2015, 19:41

Good info dosbricks! It is kind of a moot point now as I damaged the inner cover as I didn't know the bearings couldn't 'escape' without removing the cover, and you can't remove the bearing support 3-legged 'star' without removing the cover either as it is held on with another circlip on the end of the shaft. Typical Volvo, why make something easy when you can make it impossible or very expensive to replace!

The differences in the grease (assuming you haven't owned the car from new) could be someone has replaced a CV boot in the past with aftermarket and different grease supplier. From what I could see the grease was the same color, but I would say the inner bearing grease was more runny. But then again, the outer bearing has lain exposed to air for a year in my garage but covered from dust intrusion.

The whole idea of this was to give newbies to CV boot/drive axle repair a heads up on what is in there and hopefully encourage those to tackle the repair and save money and learn something from it along the way. I have rebuilt drive rear drive prop-shafts many times but they have been usually fitted with Hardy-Spicer universal joints.

Thanks for input!

Neil.

Post by **dosbricks** » 02 Mar 2015, 21:18

Interesting. I have owned the car since new but had this maintenance first done at 110k by an indy using Volvo OE boots and grease which I supplied. As I recall, that kit from the dealer did have two different kinds of grease (maybe someone can confirm or debunk that). But that doesn't mean the shop bothered to do the repack, so my guess is it was original, but can't say positively.

This time I used GKN boots (albeit the inner was the Audi spec one). Those boots had the same grease for both inner and outer. Hopefully I'm good for a while on this because it seemed a lot of work and more scary for a first timer.

BTW, my early S70--and the 850s--had a different retainer ring than your XC for the inner bearing unit. It has tabs (more like little ears) that can be bent back and allow the axle with 3-bearing unit to come out of the cylinder. Then after replacing it they just need to be tapped back down.

Post by **cn90** » 03 Mar 2015, 07:40

1+,

PS: My 1998 S70 GLT with 166K miles: the RH axle OUTER CV boot just split. This was installed by Volvo dealer (previous owner used dealer) at 130K using Napa as supplier. I am almost sure the CV Boot (the Napa axle) is made by EMPI, which is now made in China. The rubber quality is as bad as Rein.
Stick to GKN, which should last 80K-100K.

I already bought:
- GKN Inner CV Boot for 1994 Audi 100 model (see the other post)
- GKN Outer CV Boot for Volvo.

Stay tuned for photos...

PS: The 3-leg thingy is called "Tripod", whether it is a term coming from the photography world or the car world, I don't know but the mechanics refer to the Inner CV Joint as Tripod.

@scot850, this is not Volvo complicating the design.
The Axle and CV joints for Euro cars (Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Audi, VW) are made by GKN-Lobro, a world-wide company. This is the way it should be made to very high standard; servicing the CV joint is another story.
Japanese cars such as Honda, Toyota use NTN as their supplier.

Post by **abscate** » 03 Mar 2015, 09:13

My experience with CVs on VWs is that the kind of wear shown here can be safely ignored and those joints be put back in service with lots of good moly grease.

I had actual metal transfer from the races on my VW Bay Window, and blue balls (!) and they ran another 100k miles.

These joints are really well made and are better than anything aftermarket

Post by **scot850** » 03 Mar 2015, 11:49

Good info guys and should help others including myself. The only issue to prevent re-build is replacing the inner bearing retaining ring, which also has a lip on it to maintain the inner cv boot in place.

Like I said, I have no intention of rebuilding it although it would be good for future learning, but as there is no source I can find for the retaining ring it would be pointless. Parts will now be re-cycled.

Thanks,

Neil.

Post by **dosbricks** » 03 Mar 2015, 12:58

Neil,
FWIW, the inner CV can be rebooted from the outboard end of the shaft. In fact that's how I did mine, but I removed the tripod to clean out all the old thickened grease on the driver's side inner joint. But if the grease looks good, it would not appear mandatory to remove the tripod from those newer axles with the capture type retaining ring. Just scoop out all that will come out and pack in the new.

The inner joint articulates a lot less so the boot way outlasts the outer, but since it's such a task to get the axle torn down, it just seems reasonable to do them both and be done with it. Give us an update when you tackle yours.