Front half-axles - can the joints be rebuilt?

JieselDeep · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2020 4:54 am

I've been looking around awhile because I swear this has been covered at length in a couple posts already, but can you get replacement CV joints for the front half axles?

I've got a torn boot on the driver's side that slung out grease and I'm in there installing a new hub unit and lower control arms anyway, I figured I'd just replace the half-shaft with the Reman one from Napa. Except Napa now says that part is no longer available...

It made me wonder if there was a way to replace just the joints, but I don't know where to begin with finding the right components to replace. I have a click when backing up at full lock to the left, but don't hear or feel anything else wrong. I'd love to just put a new boot on and pretend everything is going to be just fine, but I'd rather put new joints on it while it's this far apart anyway if the splines all look good on the shafts.

Can anyone offer any help?

I've ordered a shaft from Amazon that matches part numbers here on the forum, but my order on the 1st of October shows expected delivery of 10/30. So while I'm waiting I thought I'd see if I can just tear the existing one apart and see if it's in good enough shape to be repaired.

Also of consideration is that I live in Hawaii, so the larger parts, unless I can get them with Prime shipping or they're small enough to fit in a flat rate box, generally cost more to ship than the price of the part itself.

Thanks all!
Jon

JieselDeep · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2020 6:18 am

I may have finally answered my own question...

https://www.aa1car.com/library/cvgrind.htm goes into detail about the process of rebuilding half-axles. There's a reason that they aren't rebuilt in an average garage. I guess the rebuild kit for the front prop shaft is possible because the 'housing' component is replaced in the process, so you don't have to worry about messing up the geometry.

I'll tear the boot off of mine and see if it has been contaminated or is rusty. I might end up just paying the stupid shipping prices and getting one from IDparts or Sasquatch, etc.

casm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:05 pm **Posts:** 694

JieselDeep wrote:

I've got a torn boot on the driver's side that slung out grease and I'm in there installing a new hub unit and lower control arms anyway, I figured I'd just replace the half-shaft with the Reman one from Napa. Except Napa now says that part is no longer available...

Funny; I was in the exact same position with Napa re: CRD halfshafts a couple of months ago. Here's what I was able to learn from them:

Apparently, Napa does have the halfshafts (part numbers NCV 940084 and NCV 940085) available - but they're sitting in a warehouse in California, and have to specifically be ordered through their distribution centres. Stores will show them as unavailable unless the store calls the local distribution centre, which in turn has to call the location in California where they're sitting in order to get them to the DC, then the store. The reason the halfshafts are still listed on the website is that they're known to be in inventory even though they haven't been sent to any of the regional distribution centres. You can see them, the store can see them, but nobody can order them except the DCs.

However, when I found out that they were going to want $60 per halfhsaft to ship them to the store, I started looking into alternatives.

Rockauto had GSP part numbers NCV 82013 and NCV 82014 listed as fitting the CRD. Called GSP, confirmed that these are the correct ones for the CRD and that they are new, not remanufactured. Ordered them, have them sitting on the floor of my office waiting to go in. Price with tax and shipping was less than half of what Napa wanted to get them to our local store, and GSP confirmed that they are an OEM for Napa.

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2020 12:40 pm

More info:
If you need the whole axles, Autozone lists them:
Autozone:
Front - Driver side PN: 10168N
Front - Passenger side PN: 10169N

If you only need to replace the boots:
There are some inner/outer boot kits listed on eBay by EMPI. (I have bought hundreds of EMPI parts in the past for VW's and found them to be of good quality)
Link:
Front Inner & Outer CV Axle Boot Kit for Jeep Liberty w/ 4x4 4wd 2002-2012 Boots

WolverineFW · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2020 2:52 pm

casm wrote:

JieselDeep wrote:

I've got a torn boot on the driver's side that slung out grease and I'm in there installing a new hub unit and lower control arms anyway, I figured I'd just replace the half-shaft with the Reman one from Napa. Except Napa now says that part is no longer available...

Funny; I was in the exact same position with Napa re: CRD halfshafts a couple of months ago. Here's what I was able to learn from them:

Apparently, Napa does have the halfshafts (part numbers NCV 940084 and NCV 940085) available - but they're sitting in a warehouse in California, and have to specifically be ordered through their distribution centres. Stores will show them as unavailable unless the store calls the local distribution centre, which in turn has to call the location in California where they're sitting in order to get them to the DC, then the store. The reason the halfshafts are still listed on the website is that they're known to be in inventory even though they haven't been sent to any of the regional distribution centres. You can see them, the store can see them, but nobody can order them except the DCs.

However, when I found out that they were going to want $60 per halfhsaft to ship them to the store, I started looking into alternatives.

Rockauto had GSP part numbers NCV 82013 and NCV 82014 listed as fitting the CRD. Called GSP, confirmed that these are the correct ones for the CRD and that they are new, not remanufactured. Ordered them, have them sitting on the floor of my office waiting to go in. Price with tax and shipping was less than half of what Napa wanted to get them to our local store, and GSP confirmed that they are an OEM for Napa.

Be careful. In the past, anyone who has ordered a "New" front CV shaft for the Liberty
CRD has had issues with them being off by up to an 1 inch in length. There have been multiple threads on the topic, which is why the Napa reman units are so coveted.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

casm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:05 pm **Posts:** 694

WolverineFW wrote:

Be careful. In the past, anyone who has ordered a "New" front CV shaft for the Liberty
CRD has had issues with them being off by up to an 1 inch in length. There have been multiple threads on the topic, which is why the Napa reman units are so coveted.

Interesting - I wasn't aware of that.

Along those lines, I checked GSP's online catalogue. NCV 82013 is for the LH side; NCV 82014 for the RH. Here're the dimensions they're listing for them:

Compressed length is probably going to be the best common denominator for comparing against stock. GSP is saying 23.7 for the RH side, and 23.82 for the LH side. Does anyone have the stock dimensions? I'm having zero luck digging them up.

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Thu Oct 15, 2020 3:06 am

Have this on file:
NAPA Axles (reman)
Left - NMD958483 CV Driveshaft Compressed Length 23 3/4 in.
Right - NMD958484 CV Driveshaft Compressed Length 25 1/16 in.

The axles for the 05 & 06 CRD and the 4 cyl. gas models use the same length front axles.
The left side is shorter and the right side is longer on them than the axles used on the V6 gas models and are not interchangeable.

casm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:05 pm **Posts:** 694

WWDiesel wrote:

Have this on file:
NAPA Axles (reman)
Left - NMD958483 CV Driveshaft Compressed Length 23 3/4 in.
Right - NMD958484 CV Driveshaft Compressed Length 25 1/16 in.

The axles for the 05 & 06 CRD and the 4 cyl. gas models use the same length front axles.
The left side is shorter and the right side is longer on them than the axles used on the V6 gas models and are not interchangeable.

Hm, interesting. Comparing those numbers against the ones that I bought, it looks as though the the RH side axles are the ones that are short. The LH side ones are close enough as doesn't matter, but there's nearly 1.4 inches of difference between Napa and GSP's numbers on the RH side. I'll pull them out of their respective boxes later today and measure.

Just out of curiosity: from checking GSP's catalogue again, NCV 82016 (LH side halfshaft for a V6 KJ) is listed as 24.72" compressed; NCV 82015 (RH V6 halfshaft) at 22.91" - so basically the reverse of your findings. Interestingly, the RH side V6 halfshaft is showing as having 29/27 splines, with the LH side being 27/27. The CRD / gas 4 cylinder models are listed as 27/27 both sides.

I'm wondering if their catalogue might not be 100% accurate. Nah, that never happens :ROTFL:

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Thu Oct 15, 2020 2:18 pm

casm, do you have your axles removed? If so measure them and post total lengths with CV joints fully compressed end to end. L&R.
Basically that would be the axle lengths I would thnk?

casm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:05 pm **Posts:** 694

WWDiesel wrote:

casm, do you have your axles removed? If so measure them and post total lengths with CV joints fully compressed end to end. L&R.
Basically that would be the axle lengths I would thnk?

Agreed. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a good block of time to deal with this. Hopefully either this weekend or next will be the date, but things are changeable right now.

Front half-axles - can the joints be rebuilt?

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