Axle replacement

[Denem]

I have an '86 Brat that has no real problems.  last fall while hunting we noticed a burnt oil smell Found a split boot on the rignt CV joint.

made  eat lled thand in Jan replaced both front axles with FEQ  shafts.  Recently I smelrd  that odor again.  No joint noise, the boots are are intiact, but both hubs are spitting grease.  I cant seem to find a "contact us"button on the FEQ  website. th  My parts guy found some info fromem but it seems to be waiver of responsibility if the shafts are too close to heat sources.  My boots have no cracks and pliable and soft The bands appear to be tight and i have less than 2K on them.  Anyone out there experience anything like this?

[idosubaru]

aftermarket axle issues are common regardless of brand, while you should check other things and look into the axles it would be really common for you to simply need new axles again or try to piece together the ones you got.

 

the best axle solution is to keep the original Subaru axles and regrease/reboot them...but obviously too late for that, but keep your rears at least if they're still original.  never replace them with aftermarket.

 

buy a used Subaru set and reboot them or get a set from MWE - they're the only aftermarket rebuilder worth buying from. a bit of work and cost shipping but once you realize the scope of the axle problem.....

if you have to buy aftermarket axles EMPI is fairly well regarded though even though they are not without issue.

[Denem]

Thanx for taking the time to reign in.  all advise is well appreciated.

[edrach]

I'm a little late to the party but I have one piece of advice.  One inner boot sits right over the catalytic converter and the heat causes that boot to fail more often than the others.  I found by fabbing a heat shield to direct more air over that boot and carry away the heat from the CC helped a lot on my '84 Brat.  Also if the fuel mixture is too rich the CC will run hotter than normal since it needs to burn off the unburned hydrocarbons.  Best fix there is to install a weber two barrel downdraft carb where you have better control over the fuel mixture than with the original Hitachi carb.