89 Accord Auto CV shafts, really odd....

[RamThis]

So I go to Auto Zone and get two reman CV shafts to slap in. I spent alot of time yesterday putting those in, along with a new alternator and some gaskets that needed replacing. Get it all back together and checked over to make sure all the suspension fasteners are tight, and go for a test drive. Two miles from the house the driver side axle gives out, busts out of the knuckle cup by the transmission. Dammit. Find out the axle was too short by about 1.5". I thought they just put the wrong axle in the box. After alot of researching, we came to the conclusion my car uses a STANDARD SHIFT axle, which is, about 1.5" longer than the AUTO SHIFT axle. WTF???? So, I had to go out to the parking lot where I rolled my car to and pull the new broken axle out, and returned it to AZ, got my factory axle back, and took it to a good driveline shop to have it rebuilt.

Has anyone come across this before? They said that the OD 4sp Auto and the Manual transmissions are thinner and the shaft for those are longer, and the 3sp Auto is thicker and that the shaft their computer calls out for is probably for that car, but it does not say specifically for 3sp or 4sp or give any dimensions of the part.

What a mess........

[Blkblurr]

Always compare the length of the old to the new axles. Saves a lot of hassles.

[shepherd79]

auto and manual have diff driver side driveshafts.

[RamThis]

Well, I still dont know what axle mine actually takes, but it's not the regular auto axle that Auto Zone shows in their system. Funny thing is, their system shows the same axle part number for auto and manual.
Anyway, I gave them back the new axle in the five biggest pieces I could find, got my money back and my original axle back, and took it to a driveline shop and had it rebuilt. When I got it back, I was almost sad to put it in the car, it looked that good. He said since I was dealing with good condition factory axles it was best to rebuild them anyway instead of getting rid of them. Well now I know for future reference lol. I swapped out axles in the Kroger's parking lot in about a half hour and was on my way again. Still never figured out the mystery of the axles though...

[1989accordaz]

Apparently they are different from standart to AT, you are the second person I know that runs into the same problem.

[lostforawhile]

don't get me even started on this,I went through this from advance,went through about 6 axles,everything from bent ones to one that was unbalanced,to finding two different lengh driveshaftes in boxes that were supposed to be the same. also the circlips that they use on the transmission end are inferior,get some honda clips and replace them before you install the driveshaft. I finally had to call the corporate office to get my money back and they refunded my core charge too,since they sent it back,I finally got a set from nappa,which is what i've got now. watch those too, they had one in the wrong box, you should get the shaft that is the hollow tube,not the narrow rod.

[AccordEpicenter]

ive had advance give me the most wrong parts than any other auto parts store. They got more stuff wrong than they did right. advance=teh suck

[w261w261]

I get a lot of parts from a Honda dealer that in years past I would have got from the aftermarket. First, Majestic Honda (25% discount) or Torrington Honda (20%) do a big internet business, so the price premium is not terrifically high compared to the NAPA's and Autozones of the world. With Honda, you *know* that they have a brand to protect, a long history of making great cars, and the strong motivation to stand behind their products.
In the aftermarket business, it's 1. price 2. price 3. price. The driveshaft or rotor or alternator that you buy from them has been through a purchasing process that has wrung every single penny out of manufacturing cost, and probably was built by a different supplier than the last order placed by Autozone, or whatever. Everything is price-driven, as long as it doesn't fall apart in the box it's probably ok. If it lasts half as long as a factory part that's fabulous...the manufacturer doesn't care, he's on to his next big order from another supplier. Put enough of these parts in your car and you, bit by bit, stop having a Honda. You have backyard assembly, suspicious alloys, production tolerances from rulers, and so forth. If you have to do it because you don't have the last extra dollars to give a dealer for a factory part, then...that's life, and you gotta do what you gotta do. But if it's a question of paying for a factory part and not going out on a Saturday night, I'd vote for factory. Just my .02.

[AccordEpicenter]

yeah seriously, ive had soo many problems with shitty aftermarket parts in hondas... for most things i generally wont use an aftermarket part unless the stock part wont cut it and i had to upgrade or i just didnt care about the part. In other instances ill use a USED factory part vs an aftermarket part.

[lostforawhile]

I get a lot of parts from a Honda dealer that in years past I would have got from the aftermarket. First, Majestic Honda (25% discount) or Torrington Honda (20%) do a big internet business, so the price premium is not terrifically high compared to the NAPA's and Autozones of the world. With Honda, you *know* that they have a brand to protect, a long history of making great cars, and the strong motivation to stand behind their products.
In the aftermarket business, it's 1. price 2. price 3. price. The driveshaft or rotor or alternator that you buy from them has been through a purchasing process that has wrung every single penny out of manufacturing cost, and probably was built by a different supplier than the last order placed by Autozone, or whatever. Everything is price-driven, as long as it doesn't fall apart in the box it's probably ok. If it lasts half as long as a factory part that's fabulous...the manufacturer doesn't care, he's on to his next big order from another supplier. Put enough of these parts in your car and you, bit by bit, stop having a Honda. You have backyard assembly, suspicious alloys, production tolerances from rulers, and so forth. If you have to do it because you don't have the last extra dollars to give a dealer for a factory part, then...that's life, and you gotta do what you gotta do. But if it's a question of paying for a factory part and not going out on a Saturday night, I'd vote for factory. Just my .02.

I've had good luck with Nappa so far,the parts cost more,but the quality is so much better. they have a reputation too,so they sell pretty good stuff. in their case they sell a lot to garauges and so on,if they sell crappy parts,the car that the garage just fixed comes back,and they have to eat the cost of repairing it twice. they get enough parts like that,they find another supplier. if you want to find good parts,ask someone at a garage with a good reputation what they use. believe me no one wants to do the same job for a second time for free

[RamThis]

So far I've had pretty fair luck with Awful Zone parts, most of the time my biggest problem with them is getting the wrong parts. I figure for a seventeen year old car with 180K on the clock, if it outlasts an inferior Awful Zone part, I'll be surprised lol.

Though I do have to admit, the car does not use a DROP of oil. Even with the bad oil leaks, at 3K miles, it is still full of oil when I change it. And with the oil pan and breather leaks fixed, and soon to have a new O-ring on the distributor to fix that nasty leak, the engine should still be pretty solid. If anything goes Id suspect the tranny would be the weak point on the car, though it also seems to work great, no slippage, shifts perfect. So, it might surprise me and keep running another 100K before kicking the bucket. It wont be in my driveway when that happens though.....

[Soundy]

Last time I got CV shafts from Lordco, they had me bring the old shafts in and compared them for length, AND compared the splines, to make sure they were giving me the right replacements. Guess they've seen this problem before...

[RamThis]

Sad thing is, we set the new ones by the old ones and had a quick look and they looked identical, and for the most part, they were! We just didnt physically line them up against a common stop and compare the other ends for a match in length, because they looked so identical laying there. The difference in length was small enough, only about 1.5", that we just never noticed. I think AZ will be more weary of this in the future, at least my local one will be. And myself, I have another damn ritual to go thru when buying a certain auto part.....

[Vanilla Sky]

actually, the length difference could probably be from you not adjusting the length as per honda's assembly instructions. my advance auto axles came with a spare boot band for this reason.

[RamThis]

No, couldnt be it. The three bearings literally busted out the end of the cup where they had pulled outward so hard when I made that left turn. There is nothing to adjust on these axles, at least not the ones I had nor the factory ones. The knuckle at the spindle end is a fixed position, and the cup by the transmission with the three bearings riding inside is supposed to float somewhere near the middle of the cup. Due to the center shaft being about 1.5" short, the bearings were riding to the outside of the cup, and when I turned sharply to the left and accelerated from the stop sign, the spindle's rotation pulled the shaft out from the cup more, putting it in a bind on the outer edges, until something had to give. The splines werent goign to slip out from the tranny due to the force of acceleration against the shaft, and the weakest point was the outer part of the cup. SNAP thump thump thump, cup breaks, three bearings fly out onto the street as the cup twists the boot in half, and the rolling wheel spins the axle and flops it around and it binds on the crossmember and exhaust bracket making alot of noise and vibrations.

I just have a weird car that takes a weird axle lol.

[Soundy]

Actually... now that explains a lot.

I had my previous 3gee into a shop to get the CVs done once... the one started clunking again about a week later, so I took it back to the shop. They informed me that the front engine mount was worn out or broken or some such nonsense, and that was allowing the engine to move too much and put extra stress on the CV joint. I don't remember exactly why, but they ended up cranking down the mount so far, it pulled the upper-rear brace up tight so there was no flex at all... and of course, the whole car then had a nasty vibration. They also threatened that since I didn't want to have the engine mounts fixed properly, if the CV went again, they wouldn't do a warranty replacement.

Frankly, I don't think they were scamming... I suspect now they were just oblivious to the fact that they probably had a shaft that was too short.

[RamThis]

Could be. One of the things they asked me at AZ was if my motor mounts were broken. Their eyes lit up when this idea hit them, thinking they just figured out my problem and could somehow pin the whole screwup on me. Sadly for them, just a few months ago, I replaced ALL the motor mounts, front, back, driver side, and the torque strut bushings. When I told them that they looked like I had just run over their puppy.

I wouldnt be surprised if you had a similar problem with yours, maybe just not the degree mine was. Maybe there is an in-between length of my factory shaft and the incorrect short one I wound up with that you might have had, which would be short enough to maybe put some force on the outer part of the cup, but not enough to bust out completely.

All I know is from now on, if I have blown boots on a CV axle, I will take them out and haul their asses to the local driveshaft shop to have them rebuilt there, so that I KNOW for sure what I'm putting in the car is going to fit!