"soupy" cv grease

Posts: 200

Hello everyone I have a strange issue with my cv. the last few times I rode grease has been escaping out from under the driver side CV and getting whipped everywhere at the trans. I thought it was just the boot being a little loose (which it is). But when I pulled the boot off today it was almost totally full with a thick liquid 'soup' that came pouring out slowly. Thats not how the grease was when I pulled the axle apart before installing them, it was thick and mostly immobile, like axle grease is supposed to be. Its as if trans fluid is somehow mixed with the grease... but how the hell could that happen?? Im gonna get the axle out and inspect the CV cause I see quite a bit of fine metal shavings in the 'soupy grease'... I hope I didnt wear out the CV badly.

any help or input is much appreciated Very Happy

Posts: 200

heres a pic of the grease pouring out. its so blurry cause my camera is being a POS, but you can get the idea of how it flows like a liquid.

Posts: 1009

I'd say if everything is fine, repack with good wheel-
bearing grease, that should do it.

Posts: 300

That would be trani. gear oil. There is a cap on the inner part of the cv that came loose or is leaking in from the trani. If it is damaged you can use one from and older cv inner. They pop out very easily. From the trani. side of the cv, after removing it, push out the small oval plate.

Posts: 200

There you are Jojano I was hoping you would chime in! You seem to know all the axle woes... thanks for once again informing me Very Happy

has this happened to you too??

Now why do they put that cap in there? I doesnt make sense to me... what purpose could it serve other than popping out and filling my boot with trans fluid? I thought it was just solid metal there so I was puzzled as to how trans fluid could get in the CV. seems stupid to me but thats no suprise when it comes to chinese engineering...

One more concern... should I be concerned that my CV has been damaged or worn by having trans fluid in there thinning out the axle grease?

Posts: 300

Yes it has. If the bearings are still tight you should be fine. I have put these axles through loads of abuse and are still in great shape. You probably had your driver side control arm set to close to the trani. The axle must have touched the cap. Like you said awsome engineering.

Posts: 200

actually right now I have the driver side swingarm set out as far away from the trans as it can go . If I set it a little closer it will start to bind when the CV tries to articulate past level. this sucks, I hope this doesnt happen regularly...

hey one more thing should I worry about the trans oil, could cv grease get in? does it matter?

Posts: 300

The grease won't hurt the trani. When you reinstall the new cup or old one flatten the center of the cup to get more axle travel and flair the outside so it seats and seals better.

godd luck

Posts: 200

Well I got that cap back in tight and threw it back together saturday and shes running strong as ever! I was happy to find out that most all the metal shaving came from that cap being punched and ground by the bearing assembly... luckily the cap is such soft thin metal, nothing happened to the CV its still in great shape. Once again thanks to jojano for the info Very Happy

Posts: 2538