CV axle - rotation axis is different than axle shaft centerline?

[thezentree]

While I was doing the LCA bushings last week, I noticed that the CV axles on my truck don't rotate around the centerline of the axle shaft - they appear to wobble around an axis 5-6mm offset from the shaft centerline. I've been fighting vibrations that are dependent upon CV angle and this "wobble" seems like it would definitely cause a vibration.

In the picture below, black is the axle shaft, green is the axle shaft centerline, and red is the rotation axis and rotation path.

Is this normal? These are OEM reman CVs with less than 5k miles.

 

[phattyduck]

There is probably a spec for runout/wobble on the shaft. It should be very nearly centered. Sounds like the shaft might be slightly bent. It is an equal amount of eccentricity the whole length of the shaft?

-Charlie

 

[thezentree]

It appears to be pretty uniform. I don't have a dial indicator to check it with, but both sides do it about the same amount.

I don't recall if the other CVs I had recently had this eccentricity but the vibration has been pretty consistent.