I just installed brand new GCK axles (bought a couple years ago) along with new wheel bearings, seals and lower ball joints (also swapped primo vented rotors and calipers with brand new pads from PAP!!) in the Brat. The GCK's are so tight there is no play at all. They will even hold their position of whichever I turn it to, like up. But, it's so tight it gives me vibrations from a dead stop under acceleration. Anybody ever have this issue? If so, how long until they're "broken in"? I believe only one axle is really tight which makes it harder to turn (the CV/DOJ) that causes the vibes.

Edited July 15, 200916 yr by SOOBOUTLAW

How long have you been driving them so far? Maybe they just need a chance to loosen up?

I don't know what happened with the GCK stuff - I bought some sets early on - 4 or 5 years back - and haven't had a problem with them. They were tight like you describe, but it never caused me an issue. I have a set still to this day in my lifted wagon and they have been through hell and never given me any issues.

 

Then a friend of mine bought a set, and had the same vibration issues you are experiencing. He took them back and went with another brand.

 

Then a bit later more people on the board here started having issues with them right out of the box. A short time after than the brand dissapeared entirely and hasn't returned.

 

I'm afraid it may never go away. I hope that isn't the case, but I've been around here a long time and no one has ever said anything about them "loosening up".

 

I've started using the EMPI axles and I've had good luck thus far. They are easily as good a quality as the early GCK's were.

 

GD

I've put like a mile on em so far. Only one axle seems to be the issue. I have a pair of old GCK's I scored from PAP that click a tad. Gonna put a few highway miles on them(new ones) and hope it smooths out.

I'd go for clicking over vibrations. I left a vibrating axle on my XT6 for awhile and it eventually destroyed the speedometer driven gear which is inside the front diff. Couldn't tell how fast I was going.

 

I've put 50,000 miles on clicking front CV's and 100,000 on broken boot rear axles...but vibrations I won't let linger.

 

Granted those are all Subaru OEM numbers, I'd never expect that out of aftermarkets (which i've had fail in less than 100 miles!!).

 

If you're into messing with axles yourself, a member of the subaruxt forum does some kind of swap of internal parts from side to side and speculates that's a good way to get rid of wear issues internally - you'd have to read the thread rather than me explain it. I actually posted a link to it on usmb just a week or two ago.

If you decide you cannot take the vibrations I strongly suggest going with MWE axles.

Been away for awhile... The problem turned out to be the DOJ on both axles, easy rebuild. Meanwhile I replaced them with..... GCK axles:grin:. Drives so much smoother. The problem axles were getting so bad I thought they were gonna break. I even pushed them hard to see if they would. Gonna take them apart and have a look see.

I had a GCK that was tight, waited for it to "wear in", and noticed I was starting to have shrapnel poking out through the boot. The bearing retainers on the 3 tripod roller bearings had come apart and gotten rolled through the rollers and poked through the boot. Then the rollers came out, and the rollers were riding right on the tripod center. Nice, got mabe 2k miles out of that axle.

 

Then I had an outer CV on the other axle grenade, the race for the balls split into two rings, all the bridges between the balls cracked.

 

So I cleaned up the axle with the broken inner and the the one with the broken outer, built one completely grenaded axle and one working one, and traded the busted one in for an autozone reman. I installed the combined new one, and then had the other GCK I had in grenade it's outer CV in the exact same way as the first one. I traded that one in for another autozone reman, and they warned me to back off on the warantee tradeins or I was going to get flagged as a problem customer by autozone corporate. "I know what you do with that wagon" he said.

 

So now I have one GCK in the car, and one subaru mix and match in it, and 2 autozone remans on the shelf.

 

These are all EA82 body style parts, mabe that was the difference?

 

My best luck has been with re-booting used subaru axles. They've all lasted way longer than the GCK's did, and they start clicking for a while first, not a sudden BANG, and no power to the wheels. I nearly got rear ended on the first one, I was accelerating, the CV shattered, I was no longer accelerating as I was fishing for 4wd, and the truck accelerating behind me was caught by surprise.

Damn, if Autozone pulls that $#!t on me, they'll get sued. The replacement GCK axles, that I got used at PAP, are now starting to act up and vibe. Wonder if it's the excessive low end torque output on my motor. It's like a f'n diesel, 1200 rpm burnouts. BTW, seems like only one axle ATM. The one I just replaced. Going camping this weekend up in the mountains so I'm bringing spares. And RWD stubs, just in case I break something in the front diff in the tranny (done it a couple times or so).

it's the aftermarket axles. go with Subaru or MWE. aftermarkets are only worth it if your time rich. you can read all day long similar threads with all sorts of issues - vibrations, clicking, noises, shimmy, grease leaking, exploding to pieces. the quality isn't there.

I had a set with bad vibs on me.turns out someone at GCK didn't put enough grease in the DOJ.DOJ's got so hot they burned off the boots.Then they were done a few miles after that.That axle had less than 50 miles...