October 30, 200718 yr Bought a GCK halfshaft for my car back in May 07 for my car. Installed it around June sometime. Blew the outer joint this morning commuting to school. The race inside the joint cracked into two seperate rings, one went into the boot, the other went deeper into the joint. Of course all the balls instantly went into the boot. Sounded like a gunshot when it blew, and the truck behind me at the intersection nearly rear ended me when I went from accel to instant coast. So that's 5 months out of a GCK halfshalf. Oh, and that lifetime warranty Autozone babbles on about? Doesn't help you when they don't carry GCK anymore, they have none in stock, and manufacturer will not refresh stock at the main warehouse. I can go for a Duralast REMAN axle in trade, but I know how that will go.
October 30, 200718 yr Contact GCK directly. They might be willing to make it right for you considering the warrantee is through them and not Autozone..... OR - buy a new one from Amazon ($50, free shipping!), and then wait a few months and return the busted one for a warantee replacement..... and just have the extra axle for either a spare, or to sell here on the board, etc. Could be a freak occurance with a defect in the race or something. Myself and Chef Tim have been running them for years without issue as have others around here. I've got 4 EA81 GCK's in use - two on my lifted wagon, and two on my Brat - no issues with any of them. ....I've only seen an axle fail like that once before, and it was with like 150k on a 2WD axle in my lifted wagon. Blew the outer joint apart while just taking off out of a drivway. But that was with 28's taking off uphill in FWD while trying to merge into traffic.... and those 2WD shafts are weak.... GD
March 17, 200818 yr Author Just did it to the amazon GCK I bought to replace it. So that's another 5 months out of a GCK axle. It blew in exacly the same way, the bearing cage cracked into two rings. I was turning right like before, and pulling out from a stop sign. No wheelspin, and I got partway into the street before it blew. Popped it into 4wd, drove it to my friends house, and pulled the bits out. Didn't tear the boot or anything. That's pretty crappy to have them letting go this often. My autozone GCK that was remaining out of the first pair had the inner DOJ eat it's self, so I'll use the outer out of that one with the inner from this one and build one OK axle, and one junk axle to trade in at autozone for another reman one. I'd assume that something is screwed with the geometry of my front end to be grenading these things every 5 months. Seeing as I only get another 10 months left on my inspection, and I won't be getting this car inspected again, I guess I'll just keep throwing axles at the problem.
March 17, 200818 yr I guess try mwe axels. Those are the closest to factory direct rebuild specs and if you blow one of those then youve got other front end problems Ben
March 17, 200818 yr Author maybe something is screwed with the application of your right foot? Yeah, it might as well be screwed to the floor. But I'm used to the subaru axles holding up untill a boot tears and they get full of mud. The GCK's boots hold up just fine, but the joint grenades inside. All my subaru axles clicked for a while as they died a sandy death. These ones are fine, then POW, all done.
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