i am well aware, the 'trakmotive' on both CV boxes and the SKF logo on the seal boxes being the biggest dead give away.

edit:
that being said, what was a big selling point for me was Napa's word honoring the warranty down the line. thank to all of you forum members, you helped me confirm that the new napa CVs are not only good to go, quality wise; but napa will actually stick to their word. its hard enough to get certain companies to warranty things.

The NAPA "max drive" CVs have never let me down. Pretty tough units and lifetime warranty.

Sorry if I implied that you didn't know that. I added that info for anyone that stumbles across this in the future.

After doing some more reading, it seems NAPA sells both reman Cardones that can be problematic, and new ones that appears are sometimes SurTrack.

I also saw someone post about the different lengths of the inboard spline after the clip ring that fits in the diff.

In this case the NAPA (SurTrack) one I got looks to be about 1mm smaller than than my original one.. which may or may not be OEM. That said, the splines on my original one taper off a bit before reaching the end, and on the new one it's more "sharp". Disregarding the tapering, the length of the spline is about the same after the clip ring.

Does anyone know if the OEM one has a tapered axle between the two boots like mine is?

no worries, i was a little surprised to see napa using more than one vendor; but there are a bevy of reasons why i can think they would be different.

for how cheap the 'new' ones are from napa, it really is a no brainier to buy the new ones over remans. i believe remans are 30 bucks cheaper, but you have to return your old ones to get the core charge back (if you dont return the old ones its actually more expensive). the warranty sucks on the remans compared to the new ones. i thought i also remember reading that if you buy remans, you run the risk of getting different 'guts' or 'bones'.

I am sorry I checked my excel sheet and it dosent have the cv napa part numbers on it. On the good news that was over 2.5 years ago with no issues.

I know I bought the new ones and they were like 20 to 30 over the remain cost each.

Had no issues installing them or with them. So I think they some quality to them.

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

The NAPA axle is installed. Phew! Would be easier with another set of hands.

I took it for a short test drive, and so far so good. I will check everything over again tomorrow and then go for a longer drive.

The nut on the new axle is a castle nut, and is no where near 35mm like the original one is. It's not 36mm either (which I also had). So I ended up using the old nut which is still in perfect condition.

I didn't realize a seal puller was necessary to replace the diff seal. (I'm new at this!) So I visually inspected the existing one and chose to continue to use it.

The old diff oil looked and smelled like new regular motor oil, complete with being runny! The new 75w90 is much thicker and stunk like I expected it to.

Was a learning experience. Hopefully I don't have to do it again soon. If I do, I'll be more prepared!

Thanks everyone for your tips!


EDIT: The castle nut that came with the NAPA axle looks to be 40mm!

yes, the nut is much larger. i just reused the OEM nut and cage. the napa nut has the 'cage' built into it (making it a castle nut). i believe its a 40 or a 42.

you really should watch @mtbtim s video before you do any mods/repair work. not only will he tell you what tools you need (like a seal puller). he will tell you all part numbers and any potential issues or hurdles you have to face, such as installing the diff oil seals and ensuring they are seated to 5.5mms and not too deep. he even tells you what size sockets and such.

my 3rd gen is my only car so i only have the weekends to work on it. if i need to do something, i will watch one of tim's videos and write down tq values, socket sizes needed, and any other specialty tool i need to rent. this really helps speed up a lot of the process.

just keep an eye on the oil seals. if they dont leak you should be fine.

+1 on the Max Drives. If you wait for a sale they are a good deal. Think I paid $60 each. The best thing is they have the lip like OEMs do so you can get them in and out easy.

oh i forgot to add, thank you for reminding me, yes the trakmotives i installed had the 'lips' like the OEM CV shafts, which made the install incredibly easy with a brass tipped punch.

the other nice thing that the new napa axles had were the correct seals/'spacers' on the ends of the cvs. no need to risk bending/warping the units when theyre already on your new CVs!