Hi Everybody.
I'm new to these forums anad a proud new owner of an 06 popo 500 HO.

The AWD wheeler is AWESOME and I'm a little obsessed about it...reallly nice ride. The bike only has 700 miles/70 hrs and looks like new.

Been lurkin around forums and found this one......looks like a pretty active place and had an awesome CV joint sticky so I joined up.

Havin a couple of issues that a user group such as this will probably know the answer too......I've already used the search and reseached some so I think I know the answers but like to be 100% before ordering parts.

First is I have a clicking sound in the right rear (by the brakes) when in a right hand turn or when appling the brakes and giving gas(just done for troubleshooting).

I removed the brakes and it still did it in the right hand turn so I'm fairly certain it's the cv joint.

The joints feel good and tight when checked for play by hand so I'm a little baffled it has a problem already with this low of hours/miles.

I also discovered a very small hole in the CV boot on the joint in question. I also need to confess the wheeler started doing it immideatly after hitting a giant water/mud whole.

So I wonder if I leave it alone will it "break" in and stop binding/popping or should I just bite the bullet and spend a $100 on a new joint or take it apart and grease it.

My buddy is telling me wheel bearing but I can't see a wheel bearing binding and clicking in a certain area like that.

Thoughts?

Also.....looking at wild boar offroad as a replacement axle......full shafts are cheapest out there that I can see.....like $160 shipped. I can't seem to find anything for less. ...

 

welcome to the forum. i'm glad the info i psted on the sticky helps. you pretty much answered your question by saying you have a hole in the cv boot and that is all it takes to get water/mud in there and eat the joint up. alot of times you wont be able to feel the bad cv joint by hand. what is happening is the crome plating is wearing off the ***** inside the cv and wears into the groves the ***** ruin it causing the sound. now it might last for awile that way, but will need to be replaced at some point before it all comes apart. if you can find one at $100. your doing real good. dont forget to replace the boot and grease as well. good luck

 

Thanks for the info!
Well I tore it apart today and have found the problem. The tear in the boot was really small and I'm up in the air about containments causing the failure I have. The cage is cracked. It's cracked in a couple of places.

My boot slit is only abou 1/8- 1/4"....grease is good and black not showing water ingrease....was actually pretty clean.

Looks like a weak design to me.....the wheeler has only 70 hours and it was literally the first hole it's been asked to go through and then popped. The front CV joints on my 93 chevy had REALLY bad boots (completely severed) on both sides when I bought the truck (160K) and both ran until 210K or so and then had to replace one. When I sold the truck (243K) it still had the other one with the bad boot. They didn't make a peep but had some slop if you rattle by hand....and were function fine. 243K is a long jump from 700 miles. The whole cv axle for the chevy was only like $80.

Maybe I'll go buy one of those at the autoparts store and take it to a machine shop and tell them to modify:-)(joke)

I'm having a tough time tryinng to decide which brand of repacement to use......they all claim to be "heavy duty" and 30% stronger....or if I could get just a cage I would be happy till it breaks again.