What's a good brand of driveaxle joint rebuild kit?

[Puddin Tane]

They look like this
vkja-8509 - Edited.jpg
and promise a good third option for dealing with a torn boot and potentially damaged joint, the main two being 1) replace the entire shaft ($$$ unless you buy junk) 2) clean the joint, inspect, repack with grease, replace torn boot, pray.
VW/Audi even offers such kits as Genuine parts, but of course they want more than you'll pay for a quality aftermarket shaft.
This type kit seems to be more popular in Europe, with 20-some options for a single application. My brain is boggled. I recognize SKF as a good brand. Do any others leap out for anybody?

Denckerman
Ridex
Febest
GSP
Optimal
Triscan
Maxgear
Stark
LPR
Drive+
NTY
NK
JP Group
Bugiad
MS Germany
Magneti-Marelli Checkstar
Statim

[EuroxS4]

That's a inner joint. Are you sure you have a issue with the inner or the outer?? Quality cv joint can be purchased at the dealer. Personally you probably better of finding a used factory axle. Cheap axles are total china garbage and are worthless.

[Puddin Tane]

Are you sure you have a issue with the inner or the outer??

Inner right front boot is blown wide open. The end with the small clamp is now a separate piece of rubber, has been for a while from the looks of it. Thanks for the reply.

[Kevin C]

GKN is oem. I would look for a good set of used inners. They are generally bullet proof as long as the boots are good and a bit pricey new. For outers I went new GKN. There is a company selling them on EBay for about $110 each.

[lyleswk]

I would go with Raxles. Not cheap, but they rebuild them for you. Be aware that if you have cheap Chinese crap on the car, they won't give you a refund on the core charge.

[Puddin Tane]

Thank you both.

GKN is oem... There is a company selling them on EBay for about $110 each.

Can you recall the name of this eBay vendor?

[itsmatt33]

axles are getting harder and harder to find now as there were a few variations for the b6 that are now discontinued. What is the part number of your current axle? I have a spare unbranded one that I would sell for cheap that was only used while the car was in the body shop.

[JoshDub]

GNK are good.

You can also call raxles and see if they can make you a new set.

[Puddin Tane]

I have a spare unbranded one that I would sell for cheap...

Thanks for offering, but that "unbranded" part puts me off. I want to know what I'm getting. The part no. of mine is 8E0-407-272-BF. I understand it's been superseded to -BN and some other numbers.

[itsmatt33]

Thanks for offering, but that "unbranded" part puts me off. I want to know what I'm getting. The part no. of mine is 8E0-407-272-BF. I understand it's been superseded to -BN and some other numbers.

agreed but when i received and installed it the build quality actually seemed solid.

[Puddin Tane]

Sorry dude, you did get me more interested but I pulled the trigger last night on a joint renewal kit.

After hours of sleuthing this shit, I discovered that GKN also makes this type kit (everything needed to make either joint brand new, for way less scratch than a complete shaft) but to find them you have to look for GKN's sub-brands, Lobro and Spidan. Their complete shafts are also these two brands. And there are no U.S. sellers of those kits, only British and other European.

[itsmatt33]

Sorry dude, you did get me more interested but I pulled the trigger last night on a joint renewal kit.

After hours of sleuthing this shit, I discovered that GKN also makes this type kit (everything needed to make either joint brand new, for way less scratch than a complete shaft) but to find them you have to look for GKN's sub-brands, Lobro and Spidan. Their complete shafts are also these two brands. And there are no U.S. sellers of those kits, only British and other European.

told you the stuff is getting increasingly harder to find. There are also an insane number of variations and most places only stock the last version now. hopefully what you got fits

[Puddin Tane]

told you the stuff is getting increasingly harder to find.

Yeah, that really blows. Guess I need to shop for parts cars, or resign myself to junking this one eventually, much as I love it.

I didn't get a GKN kit (Lobro or Spidan) because dealing with UK ecommerce is chancy if I need to return it. SKF is another respected German brand and Audi OE manufacturer, and Amazon is the sole US source of SKF's kit, which they sell through their Global Store program. Amazon allows returns of this item per their usual policy.
SKF VKJA 8509 CV joint kit
Ordered on Tuesday 7/26/2022, will arrive all the way from Poland exactly one week later. It cost one fifth as much as a new GKN shaft and will hopefully provide an identical repair. I'll know when I have it to compare to the old pieces.

[Spike00513]

OEM = best
good used can be rebuilt
new usually ends in X to indicate remanufactured

B6 came with like 5 axle versions

Unicorn (6spd manual, wagon, 1.8T) is Rzeppa's up front, spreads the load over 6 bearings instead of 3, same design used on quality vehicles like sandrails Porsche etc.
metal will last 1m miles if rebooted

other models (such as 3.slow tiptragic, etc.) often came with worse versions like tripod that tends to fail

all B6 had the same axles in rear. Which everyone knows pretty much run 200k without issue. Because they're rzeppa.
which is harder to rebuild

[Puddin Tane]

velly intelestink, thank you.

My factory front axles are 8E0 407 271 BF (left) and 8E0 407 272 BF (right). They do have the tripod inner joints, but only the boots on those are failing. Guess I caught it in time. I explored re-booting myself but found out that involves way more tooling for a single job than I care to get into. To disassemble the tripod joint you use a press adapted to pull instead of push by replacing its jack with a hydraulic two-way ram, plus other stuff to adapt the press to the work. I don't even have a press, or anywhere to put one. I guess I could just hold the shaft with my vice and yank the joint off with a slide hammer bearing puller. Oh well, didn't think of it in time. That pretty much killed the joint renewal kit idea too. I'm returning it. I had assumed the tripod bearings would just exit the race cup freely once the boot was off, but the races are machined so that the shaft stops short. I ended up buying complete axles from Raxles, having realized the stupid way why I was advised to go that route. Raxles essentially puts two of those joint kits (good ones) on salvaged OEM center shafts, so it's exactly what I was gonna try to do myself.

So I've been told GKN was Audi's parts contractor for my OEM axles. Do you know if that's right? GKN (as Lobro and Spidan) actually sells those kits. I bet that's exactly what Raxles uses on Audi shafts.

[Kevin C]

You can put boots on the inners without taking them apart if you have the outside joints off when you do those boots.

No need for special tools. Only the Oem kits will have the correct inner grease.

[Kevin C]

Also... you can clean the inners with mineral spirits and a brush. Stand the axles up, pour some in and loosen up the old grease. Once clean just refill them and slide the boots on. The OEM inners are rubber and very easy to fit.

Using a good quality crimp tool helps. On the outers, when you go to reassemble work the snap ring into the groove before you press. The lead in chamfer is not all that good and needs some help.

Getting it started also reduces the amount of metal shards from the snap ring.

[Puddin Tane]

Thanks Kevin. I can rehab my old axles now.

[BumblebVR6]

I have three sets of axles for my car that I have rebuilt as needed but last set I bought were the FEQ brand from ECS for around $85 and axle. Hard to beat that price, as you'll spend that on boot kits per axle alone. When the boots go bad, just trash the whole axle and get another.

[JoshDub]

What's the going rate at raxles these days? I'm planning on rebooting but I may just pick up a new set instead

[Puddin Tane]

What's the going rate at raxles these days?

$329.95 per axle, plus 2-way shipping, plus tax. The total for two axles was $709.75

And they sure are purdy. Impeccable packing job too. I'm real impressed by the whole experience. They're as good as everybody says.

[Kevin C]

As a reference my refresh cost with oem inner boots and grease and new GKN (OEM manf) outers is about $130 per side. This makes sense for me if the inners are still good.

Just boots is about $45 per side. Messy job but doable and not for everyone. So far it's my preferred option to avoid possible issues with low cost aftermarket parts.

It's also good to know that some people have had good results with some brands.

[Puddin Tane]

As a reference my refresh cost ... is about $130 per side.

Yeah, I'm wishing now I had been more determined to use that joint kit, and just rebooted the other shaft. That old joint would have come off with a slide hammer, I'm sure. I was in over my head and panicked, Raxles was a lifesaver I could grab. I have been getting a drivetrain growl that increases with speed, so I'm doing a "scorched earth" drivetrain rehab that should crush such problems for at least 100k. Still, new axles was overkill. Oh well.

Thanks for the guidance. I'll put it to use on the rear axles, if they ever need it.

Where do you go for GKN boot kits?

[Puddin Tane]

This thread has inspired me to grow a pair and reboot my Genuine axles. Not only is it way cheaper, but the Raxles are clearly a step down in quality, making them a real dumb decision. My tripod joint with the blown boot is fine, I caught it in plenty of time.

The first step is disassembling the tripod inner joint, since that's where the bad boots are. Once I figured out what to do I was amazed by how cheap and easy it was, so I'm sharing.

step 1: go to Autozone and borrow two tools from their loaner program. You buy the tools up front and get a full refund when you take them back, making the tool outlay for this task ZERO $$. Those tools are:

loaner # 27033 large slide hammer
IMG_1166 - Edited.jpg

loaner # 57187 harmonic balancer puller set
IMG_1167 - Edited.jpg
You mainly want it for that yoke, but the bolt sets are key too

The puller threads right into the yoke, like so. Both are 5/8" fine thread
IMG_1168.jpg

The yoke assembles to the back of the tripod joint cup, like so. You supply your own nuts and washers.
IMG_1169 - Edited.jpg
As you can see, the yoke is a little small, but it still works. A hub puller yoke would be too big. Anybody know of an in-between yoke?

Now hold the axle shaft in a vice tightened down real hard, cut and remove the large boot clamp and work the boot off the cup, thread the puller into the yoke, and WHAM BAM THANK YA MA'AM. It took two good whacks to get the joint apart. The bearing spider actually comes right out of the cup. Wipe excess grease off the spider and attack its securement clips with snap ring pliers and external lock ring spreader pliers. The spider can be worked off the shaft with a hammer and punch, then thoroughly clean everything.

Next you'll need reboot kits. For my car the best bets are
VW / Audi Genuine 4E0-498-201
GKN 305121
GKN is supposed to be same as Genuine, but notice the different ear clamps. I like the Genuine ones better; they provide more grip range when you crush em.

When re-assembling, the spider has to be pounded back into the race cup with a dead blow hammer or the like. To avoid beating on the Rzeppa joint at the other end of the shaft, I'll do that by holding the axle shaft with my vice again and beating on the back of the grease-filled tripod cup.

[Spike00513]

velly intelestink, thank you.

My factory front axles are 8E0 407 271 BF (left) and 8E0 407 272 BF (right). They do have the tripod inner joints, but only the boots on those are failing. Guess I caught it in time. I explored re-booting myself but found out that involves way more tooling for a single job than I care to get into. To disassemble the tripod joint you use a press adapted to pull instead of push by replacing its jack with a hydraulic two-way ram, plus other stuff to adapt the press to the work. I don't even have a press, or anywhere to put one. I guess I could just hold the shaft with my vice and yank the joint off with a slide hammer bearing puller. Oh well, didn't think of it in time. That pretty much killed the joint renewal kit idea too. I'm returning it. I had assumed the tripod bearings would just exit the race cup freely once the boot was off, but the races are machined so that the shaft stops short. I ended up buying complete axles from Raxles, having realized the stupid way why I was advised to go that route. Raxles essentially puts two of those joint kits (good ones) on salvaged OEM center shafts, so it's exactly what I was gonna try to do myself.

So I've been told GKN was Audi's parts contractor for my OEM axles. Do you know if that's right? GKN (as Lobro and Spidan) actually sells those kits. I bet that's exactly what Raxles uses on Audi shafts.

Raxles is a good option if you can afford it. The shafts don't break unless it's in a supercharged S4.
DIY is for people who want to spend $25 on a boot kit instead of hundreds

Not sure what you mean about expensive special tools.
It's done with basic primitive hand tools that are commonly available and most people have

This thread has inspired me to grow a pair and reboot my Genuine axles. Not only is it way cheaper, but the Raxles are clearly a step down in quality, making them a real dumb decision. My tripod joint with the blown boot is fine, I caught it in plenty of time.

The first step is disassembling the tripod inner joint, since that's where the bad boots are. Once I figured out what to do I was amazed by how cheap and easy it was, so I'm sharing.

step 1: go to Autozone and borrow two tools from their loaner program. You buy the tools up front and get a full refund when you take them back, making the tool outlay for this task ZERO $$. Those tools are:

loaner # 27033 large slide hammer
IMG_1166 - Edited.jpg

loaner # 57187 harmonic balancer puller set
IMG_1167 - Edited.jpg
You mainly want it for that yoke, but the bolt sets are key too

The puller threads right into the yoke, like so. Both are 5/8" fine thread
IMG_1168.jpg

The yoke assembles to the back of the tripod joint cup, like so. You supply your own nuts and washers.
IMG_1169 - Edited.jpg
As you can see, the yoke is a little small, but it still works. A hub puller yoke would be too big. Anybody know of an in-between yoke?

Now hold the axle shaft in a vice tightened down real hard, cut and remove the large boot clamp and work the boot off the cup, thread the puller into the yoke, and WHAM BAM THANK YA MA'AM. It took two good whacks to get the joint apart. The bearing spider actually comes right out of the cup. Wipe excess grease off the spider and attack its securement clips with snap ring pliers and external lock ring spreader pliers. The spider can be worked off the shaft with a hammer and punch, then thoroughly clean everything.

Next you'll need reboot kits. For my car the best bets are
VW / Audi Genuine 4E0-498-201
GKN 305121
GKN is supposed to be same as Genuine, but notice the different ear clamps. I like the Genuine ones better; they provide more grip range when you crush em.

When re-assembling, the spider has to be pounded back into the race cup with a dead blow hammer or the like. To avoid beating on the Rzeppa joint at the other end of the shaft, I'll do that by holding the axle shaft with my vice again and beating on the back of the grease-filled tripod cup.

I normally just use my bare hands

[Kevin C]

This thread has inspired me to grow a pair and reboot my Genuine axles. Not only is it way cheaper, but the Raxles are clearly a step down in quality, making them a real dumb decision. My tripod joint with the blown boot is fine, I caught it in plenty of time.

The first step is disassembling the tripod inner joint, since that's where the bad boots are. Once I figured out what to do I was amazed by how cheap and easy it was, so I'm sharing.

step 1: go to Autozone and borrow two tools from their loaner program. You buy the tools up front and get a full refund when you take them back, making the tool outlay for this task ZERO $$. Those tools are:

loaner # 27033 large slide hammer

loaner # 57187 harmonic balancer puller set
IMG_1167 - Edited.jpg
You mainly want it for that yoke, but the bolt sets are key too

The puller threads right into the yoke, like so. Both are 5/8" fine thread


The yoke assembles to the back of the tripod joint cup, like so. You supply your own nuts and washers.

As you can see, the yoke is a little small, but it still works. A hub puller yoke would be too big. Anybody know of an in-between yoke?

Now hold the axle shaft in a vice tightened down real hard, cut and remove the large boot clamp and work the boot off the cup, thread the puller into the yoke, and WHAM BAM THANK YA MA'AM. It took two good whacks to get the joint apart. The bearing spider actually comes right out of the cup. Wipe excess grease off the spider and attack its securement clips with snap ring pliers and external lock ring spreader pliers. The spider can be worked off the shaft with a hammer and punch, then thoroughly clean everything.

Next you'll need reboot kits. For my car the best bets are
VW / Audi Genuine 4E0-498-201
GKN 305121
GKN is supposed to be same as Genuine, but notice the different ear clamps. I like the Genuine ones better; they provide more grip range when you crush em.

When re-assembling, the spider has to be pounded back into the race cup with a dead blow hammer or the like. To avoid beating on the Rzeppa joint at the other end of the shaft, I'll do that by holding the axle shaft with my vice again and beating on the back of the grease-filled tripod cup.

Thanks for posting your solution. I have normally skipped taking the tripods apart. I have a set that need to do over and might give it a go. Also, for inner boot kits only the OEM kits supply the original grease. All aftermarket kits use the outer grease (Mos fortified). Supposedly the reason the factory used a special inner grease is that is has lower friction when used with roller bearings. I have been running the wrong stuff on the inners for a couple of years and so far nothing has gone wrong but on the fresh set I'm going back to OEM. For the OEM kits ECS has them on sale. If your willing to wait CARS245.com has the best price.

[Puddin Tane]

Huh?? So you just grab onto the shaft and pull the spider out with arm strength? Seriously?

Not sure what you mean about expensive special tools.

I wrote that while deceived by a Youtube scammer, a Caribbean mechanic who rebuilds axles, who made a "how to" video on the subject. He presents the ridiculous set-up with press, ram, other hardware as "the correct way" to dismantle a tripod joint, and I fell for it. He does mention the slide hammer method in passing as "yeah, you can do it that way, but..." I realized later that he hatched this fiction to manipulate potential DIYers to throw up their hands and just bring the work to him, which is probably rife in YT "how to" videos. That's when the penny dropped that I could do it myself using a slide hammer I didn't even have to buy.

[Puddin Tane]

for inner boot kits only the OEM kits supply the original grease.

That grease was still intact inside the other tripod joint, and man it was weird. Half way between grease and motor oil, super gloppy and runny, flowed out all over the floor when the boot came off, doesn't appear to have any moly in it. FWIW I put the spider from the blown joint in an ultrasonic cleaner and a surprising amount of grit came out. I still think that spider is fine-- no visible wear on the rollers, no slop at all in the needle bearings, no scratchy or crackly noises when I turn them by hand next to my ear, nothing but smooooooove. The grease in the cup also doesn't feel gritty, but it is clearly moly grease so this joint must have been serviced by someone.

PS-- I did get Genuine boot kits. Thanks for that great tip.

[BumblebVR6]

Huh?? So you just grab onto the shaft and pull the spider out with arm strength? Seriously?

I wrote that while deceived by a Youtube scammer, a Caribbean mechanic who rebuilds axles, who made a "how to" video on the subject. He presents the ridiculous set-up with press, ram, other hardware as "the correct way" to dismantle a tripod joint, and I fell for it. He does mention the slide hammer method in passing as "yeah, you can do it that way, but..." I realized later that he hatched this fiction to manipulate potential DIYers to throw up their hands and just bring the work to him, which is probably rife in YT "how to" videos. That's when the penny dropped that I could do it myself using a slide hammer I didn't even have to buy.

Just tap around the inner tripode cage while holding the shaft in a vice, it will come out.

[Puddin Tane]

I have a set that need to do over and might give it a go.

Seems like the way to go if you're just doing the inners, like me. The booting will be much easier then, no? And you won't have to mess with the outers at all.

[Puddin Tane]

Just tap around the inner tripode cage while holding the shaft in a vice, it will come out.

So that knocks the spider off the end of the shaft and leaves it captive inside the cup, right?

[BumblebVR6]

So that knocks the spider off the end of the shaft and leaves it captive inside the cup, right?

The spider will stay since it has the circlip holding it on. That's what you're trying to expose. That's how I've done them in the past. Going to try again this weekend as I have a set of joints with bad inners as well and got some GKN service kits for them.

[Kevin C]

That grease was still intact inside the other tripod joint, and man it was weird. Half way between grease and motor oil, super gloppy and runny, flowed out all over the floor when the boot came off, doesn't appear to have any moly in it. FWIW I put the spider from the blown joint in an ultrasonic cleaner and a surprising amount of grit came out. I still think that spider is fine-- no visible wear on the rollers, no slop at all in the needle bearings, no scratchy or crackly noises when I turn them by hand next to my ear, nothing but smooooooove. The grease in the cup also doesn't feel gritty, but it is clearly moly grease so this joint must have been serviced by someone.

PS-- I did get Genuine boot kits. Thanks for that great tip.

The weird grease thing has had me curious for a while. MOs grease gets used in the inners a lot, yet GKN has literature saying that it increase the chance of roller skidding and joint damage. Then you buy a GKN boot kit and it has the grease that they say is a problem. WTF? One reason for the special inner grease is for NVH, it has considerably less friction than the MOS stuff so it reduces driveline vibration. Inner joint friction is apparently very important for that. So reduced the small amount of joint friction by 20 to 30% is probably why the factory went with it. Most aftermarket manufactures are not that focused on that type of detail and I would bet that someone replacing a failed joint will not notice that the new axle is not as good as what the failed axles were when new. They will notice its a lot better than the failed part.

That's my take and one of the reasons I like to do them myself.

Again, thanks for the info on how you got your joints apart.

Kevin