knocking cv joints - how long can I ignore for

[sharkjazz]

Cv joint knocking again, increasing with speed, ceases without accelerator pressed. Had it before so fairly certain is cv joints. The knocking seems worse when the engine is cold, then comes on intermittenly, in 4th and 5th gear, am unsure (due to background noise) if the knocking is there, but we think not as much as in the lower gears. W*nking the driveshaft, doesn't appear to help at all in stopping for noise for a bit.

Problem is we are stuck on some island in Panama about 12 hours drive from the captial where the only hope we have finding spare parts. This combined with the problem, wifey is demanding we leave the island as she has issues with some people, which makes getting the parts sent here is.

So my questions is, can we make it the 600kms / 12 hours to the city? Another issue, there is a bit of the mountain range in the way we have to climb then come down.

If you keep driving on bad cv joints, what eventually happens? The joints fail? The transmission may be damaged etc etc


Background
van is t25, 1988 diesel, LHD. We have been on many bad roads / dirt roads recently, have driven too fast over too many speed bumps I haven't noticed, gone up extremely steep roads where have had to hit them at 15-20mph in 1st gear, and some of these inclines have been bad conditioned dirt roads, full of holes causing the van to jump, lurch, wheels to loose contact with ground, wheel spin in attempts to get up the hills. None of this very good for van.

[gypo]

Sometimes if you catch hold of the shaft and move it from side to side it will re-distribute the grease and stop it for a while.
G

[Hacksawbob]

You could flip the CV, either inner to outer or the whole left hand side drive shaft to right, they are all interchangeable so long as the mating face remains either inner towards the wheel or to the gearbox, and re-grease. Not a great job to do the best of times and if you dont have the right tools it can be a real nightmare. Have a look here what's involved. https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ge ... nts_repair" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the articulation up and down over bumps and acceleration and deacelleration, eventually wear the cage and balls down. the more vigourous the quicker the wear. I have not actually heward of a CV actually disintegrating usually they get so noisy people change them first. if it actually did 'go I guess the inner cage would not spin with the outer the boot would shred, the balls would disappear and you would be left with no drive. It is a spare to be carried on longer journeys in foreign climes!

[Ian Hulley]

I'd undo the joints and repack with grease ... oh and tell the missus to s.t.f.u.

[Ian and Lins]

Right, this is a bodge (not sure what you would call it) and others on the forum quite rightly say you shouldn't do it. Get a can of spray copper grease and ease the thin nozzle between the gaiter and the shaft; spray in lots of grease; move the nozzle around and spray in more. Do it to both/all of the joints.
I intended this to last just long enough to keep me going until I found the time to get them fixed and that was about 6 months ago. I use the van as my daily drive.
Repeat; this is a BODGE!

[sharkjazz]

Thanks for the help guys, the strange thing is the knocking is coming from the side that has been replaced twice in the last 6 months and definitely is full of grease, squeezing the rubber bits causes some grease to escape. I'll try and find some grease here and keep fingers crossed

[CovKid]

Its possible that your CV joints are one of the newer poor quality CV joints that are doing the rounds. They're simply not hardened properly and wear out rapidly. Whoever makes them wants shooting.