Left or right side? I have read it both ways in past messages. I was so excited to
get them in the solvent bucket after splitting them with the BFP that I failed to remeber where they come from. One side does show about twice as much wear.
IIRC (been a wile) mine looked the same, there is a differential between them so the load should be the same on each under most conditions.
Perhaps you should look and see witch side of the slots in the bells and the center star has more wear, they will be more worn in the forward direction, with that you should be able to deduce what side they were on and install them opposite.
You did not mix birf parts from side to side correct? each bell cage star and ball set should be swaped as an assembly. on to the opposing axle shaft.
I would have mixed all of the parts up but Cdan told that it was a bad idea when I asked him if I could buy some of them shiney marbles and another star thingamjigger. All or nothing he says and the price for both sides hits the $1000 range. At $1000+ for both I think I will wait. Any idea on what they are worth used? Maybe you can recover some of the cost by selling the "broken in" used ones on ebay for back ups?
You should be able to deduce this from the wear pattern. The inner star gets the torque from the diff, and then spins the outer shell/bell. So, the balls would place most pressure on the anti-clockwise faces of the left hand star when viewed from the wheel side looking at the engine, and of course the opposite would be the case when viewing the right hand star. Hope that's clear.
As for which gets the most wear, I'd guess the left due to the longer axle flexing and snapping back for more peak pressure moments, plus its the side that leaks sooner and more likely to have substandard lubrication during it's life. But with unknown vehicle history (and thus unknown if one or the other was replaced), you could be looking at a replaced left side and a more worn original right side. So look at the wear patterns, and be sure you've got the star oriented properly. Photos have been posted here, so these will help a lot as well.
I would guess the PS because Right hand turns cause the birfield to rotate further than left hand turns. Front wheel drive cars almost always lose the PS CV joint first. But I'm no engineer.
I'm fixin to swap mine fairly soon, before cruise moab.. I'm glad I bounced into this post as I hadn't heard about keeping all the innerds together.. will try to remember to report my condition at 129K.
