Experience with reman axles
 

When swapping in a new transmission, I found the inner cv boot on the drivers side axle is torn and has nearly no grease. Does anyone have any experience with parts store remans? At $70 per side, the price is much nicer than new. I don't want to replace the boot and regrease as I have no clue how long the boot has been busted and lack of grease still there.

beware, most parts stores list turbo axles as well as n/a axles, both are in fact likely non turbo axles.

just rebuild them, it's tough to wear out the CV joint even without any grease.

you could probably hire just about any reputable auto shop to rebuild them for you for the same price and have a more reliable product. remans are usually plagued by cheap parts/labor and fail prematurely.

think about it, if turbo axles were that cheap people would just buy them at the parts stores and cough up the $20-30 core and still be ahead.

I have had good luck with rebuilt axles from ISC Racing. In my case, I needed NA axles, which are NLA from Mazda.

Concur regarding TII Axles. Hard to find these days used much less new.

If anyone needs NA axles, I've got 'em left over from my swap.

I've seen previous good experience with raxles.com. This was for an MX6 GT, where they updated the assembly with parts from a later model of the car. I imagine they do their own catalog-sourcing to produce hard-to-find-new assemblies. I'll probably try them when I get around to doing mine.

Thanks for the info. Ill avoid the part store remans. I put a line out to raxles to see if they make anything for our cars. It is nice to see they only use new innards.

Even if you could get your hands on actual TII reman axles, you wouldn't want them. Remanufacturers break the joint down, grind the hardened surface off, then insert larger ball bearings. That exposes softer steel, making them more susceptible to premature wear.

Raxles responded they don't make them for Turbo IIs. So my options are replace the boot and repack on a questionable axle, replace with decades old used units, or buy new for $550+ per side. I've see what the driveshaft shop has to offer and they are way too expensive at $2k if you don't drag race the car competitively for the upgraded axles with new parts.

I'll probably just take this one apart and see what they wear looks like. It is still $260 in parts plus my time to replace all of the boots using OEM parts. They all have dry rot showing though. It is only a matter of time before there are other rips.

Not $2,000
The Driveshaft Shop | MAZDA 1986-1992 RX-7 (FC) Turbo II Rear Axle Bar Upgrade - FC 1986-1992 - Mazda - Import Axles

Also not $2000
The Driveshaft Shop | MAZDA 1986-1992 RX-7 (FC) Turbo II Rear Axle Bar / Inner CV Upgrade - FC 1986-1992 - Mazda - Import Axles

That being said, I bought some boots and re-packed mine with some high quality synthetic grease and they have held up fine for 2 years. Cost me about $60 and a very messy evening. Once I get the rest of the car sorted I will be picking up that set from Driveshaft shop though.

$260? boot kits are only about $15 a piece X4= $60.

break the joint all the way down to clean it thoroghly and inspect the pieces for excessive wear.

a proper cared for CV joint will last quite a while and i doubt the mazda axles are any exception, i recently rebuilt the axles on our '83 mercedes and they were fine even after being run dry for a few hundred miles, clicking and clattering with the shafts having nearly 400k miles on them.