What is best brand for axle replacment?

[PaulF]

So your having a specific issue, could it be related to increased ride height or bigger tires, both of which will generate additional heat. You have to look at the bigger picture, if it is a systematic design shortcomings how do people get 16k and 25k miles without failure?

There seems to be no correlation and my issue is not specific, it is pretty wide spread. It is not systemic, it is sloppy manufacturing tolerances where some parts come off the line good and some are bad. You can see a pattern here with the Sub-Transmissions, Drivelines and now rear inner CV joints. It is completely random so there is no way to anticipate or prevent some of these problems, they just happen to some and not others.

I am at stock ride height and 30" tires. Many run 30-32" tires (like @Dankathy and @hondabob ) and are pushing high miles without issues but like the OP, many owners ALL STOCK and 1000 miles with "the noise". It is all over the board and points to crappy manufacturing.

Like other badly manufactured parts (namely the drivelines) some get good parts and others get bad ones. Why did @hondabob's original driveline last 15,000+ miles and then go through 3 or 4 more in a matter of a few thousand miles until the dealer finally welded the horribly manufactured part because they were sick and tired of replacing them under warranty.

I am the only one that I know of that has actually dismantled and cleaned a joint to see what is wrong. The joint felt good and tight while together but only after tearing it apart and cleaning it did it reveal the issue. I suspect that if more folks actually dismantle and clean the joints, we will see similar damage.

I am going to tear the left side apart tonight and see what that joint looks like.

And I already admitted that my driving style may be a bit of a factor...

My driving style (especially at the dunes) may have contributed to their early demise. I like to "hop" off of small hills and just keep my foot on the skinny pedal. most of the time it results it simply throwing sand back 30 feet but a couple of times the wheels were spinning pretty fast when I reconnected with the sand and I experienced a "bang" upon landing. One time it was loud enough for me to stop and check to see if I had broken an axle.

 

[hondabob]

Most CV joints are tough. I expect to get at least to 30,000 miles or more on mine. I also get the popping noise on start up when cold and at gas stations turns. I think its best to use Honda axles.

 

[PaulF]

Took the left side apart and although the wear/damage is not as bad, it is obvious and telling. These joints are manufactured horrible. If they were manufactured within proper design for a CV joint, this type of wear would not exist. On the right side, all the balls were black with heat and all the inner race was badly damaged on all 6 races (some more than others). The left side has 3 ball black with heat and 3 damaged races BUT 3 balls or just fine as well as the 3 races they were in. This tells us that this joint was only working on 3 balls and the other 3 were just along for the ride causing the 3 balls doing all the work to overheat...

The 3 balls on the left of the pic are black and pitted from heat damage, the 3 on the right are as I would expect with only 4000 miles. The 3 races on the left correspond to the 3 heat damaged balls, the 3 on the right show no wear and two of them are basically untouched as if the ball was doing nothing.

 

[LincolnSixAlpha]

2600 miles on mine and the rears have been clicking as I reverse outta the garage when it's been sitting. I'm also sitting high up on some Eibach stage 2 springs (2 seaters) with a bit of weight on the up top on the back and heavy 30x10x14 tires. I've got a set of Rhino 2.0's sitting garage, I don't like them, personally, I'm fine and happy with the honda axles. Reading your comments, I'd agree with the observations that likely the parts are just machined too tight and quite likely don't wear or break in easily. Likely the design probably needs some modifications from the engineering department. I'd be willing to bet mine look just like what PaulF's pics show with burnt balls (lol) and some other assorted wear. My feeling, I'm just gonna run them till they break, or give out. I would be willing to bet that this issue plagues most all of us Talon owners, and if most are piling lots of miles on without too many major failures then no harm, no foul. Personally, I beat my talon pretty hard sometimes and It has never complained.

 

[jonacombs]

I took mine apart when they started popping. The race and balls looked without defect but the cups had some wear. I only had around 900 miles when the passenger side would pop when turning. I replaced it with a rhino 2.0. The popping went away until the driver side oem axle started popping. I replaced it with a rhino 2.0 and the rhino started popping within 50 miles. Now I just ignore the popping. Some people on the FB groups have wet sand and polished the CVs to make the noise go away but, I think it usually comes back. If I had to do it over again, I would have just ordered the OEM inner CV joint for $125.

 

[HondaTech]

We had ours micro polished and cryoheat treated with 300M axle shafts and they still pop after sitting a while.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

You guys need to get louder exhausts or stereos to drown out the Talon "noises".

The axles are not broken until either the shaft snaps in half or it spits the balls or star pieces out of the boots. @hondabob has way more miles on his Talon than any of us will probably ever have, and he still has all the factory axles in it with no reported failures. Stop worrying..... 🤣

 

[CID]

There's an ad banner running on the Ultra4 KOH race saying that SpiderTraxOffroad (spidertrax.com) has more podium finishes than any other axles. I don't know if they have SxS axles or not.

 

[PaulF]

You guys need to get louder exhausts or stereos to drown out the Talon "noises".

The axles are not broken until either the shaft snaps in half or it spits the balls or star pieces out of the boots. @hondabob has way more miles on his Talon than any of us will probably ever have, and he still has all the factory axles in it with no reported failures. Stop worrying..... 🤣

I'm not worried, I just hate the noise. My Audi had 300,000 miles on it when I sold it with all 8 factory CV's and quiet as a mouse. I am not asking for much to expect my Talon to be quiet for 1/10 of that but it started making noise at 1/100 of the miles. Honda is using cheap (soft) Chinese parts and if I wanted that, I would just go buy a Polaris. That is plain inexcusable in my world.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

There's an ad banner running on the Ultra4 KOH race saying that SpiderTraxOffroad (spidertrax.com) has more podium finishes than any other axles. I don't know if they have SxS axles or not.

RCV is the company that builds our kind of axles. They are about 2k for a set of 4 and you still have to use the factory CV joints.

Spidertrax builds mostly high end solid axles and IFS center sections. One "bling" Spidertrax Pro Series axle costs about the same as our whole machine does. 🤣

 

[highpocket74]

I watch a video of a factory honda race team and they run Honda cv axles! They said they are some of the strongest axles they've ever run.

12:57 minute mark

 

[highpocket74]

I see now that they need a 10-80 shifter plate!