Do we have Constant Velocity Joints?

[Jim Henderson]

Do our LS have Constant Velocity (CV) joints in the rear? The reason I ask is that during an inspection I noticed that our half shafts look suspiciously like CV joints, and maybe that is where I am getting a noise.

If we do, how do you diagnose a problem with them?

A month or so back I noticed a small whine, kind of like a small electric motor whine, or maybe noisy tires(mine are relatively new). Lately it is louder and sounds more like a gear whine with a bit of a sound like brake drums dragging too.

It is speed dependent but not engine RPM/gear dependent. It varies on how much load is on the drive train, ie it gets noisier if you give a little acceleration and gets quieter when you let off the gas. It doesn't get louder with a lot versus a little acceleration.

If I had to say which side it was on, I would lean a bit towards the right side. The sound does not change when I do turns or "slaloms".

Only road speed and acceleration affects the noise.

I was inspecting things this past weekend. No leaks, no breaks in the rubber boots on the "CV" Joints. Everything looked great. Turning the tires by hand didn't show tell me anything. The gear oil dripping out of the fill hole looked OK.

I am hoping it is just a CV acting up but I don't have a lot of experience with CVs, only noise I am familiar with on a CV is a clunking and maybe grinding sound on the two cars I have diagnosed in my time. I want to avoid even draining the diff fluid since it looks like you have to do a fair amount of disassembly to get the cover off, good Old Lincoln engineers. Normally I would just change and inspect the diff fluid since it is so easy, but this looks like a PITA. So I'd rather have a bad CV if that is the problem.

So, if we do have CVs how do I diagnose it? Any tricks to replacing or rebuilding them? Looks fairly straight forward, assuming they are CVs.

Any help would be appreciated since I probably need to get this done in the next few weekends and I really hope not to pull the diff just to change fluid.

Jim Henderson

 

[lseguy]

I cant fully answer your question, but wanted to add that I have owned many a front wheel drive (CV Joints) in my day, and the only time a CV joint/halfshaft has gone bad is when that rubber accordian type boot has torn, allowing dirt in, grease out. If the boots are intact, Im almost certain the joint is fine.

 

[owlman]

I believe there are inboard and outboard cv joints on the rear halfshafts.

 

[SoonerLS]

You might search on half-shafts; IIRC, ToddG had a bad half-shaft in his '03, but I don't recall what his exact symptoms were (other than a whine from the bad half-shaft(s)). The only problems I've ever had with CV joints were, as you noted, clunking noises.

And those would be good ol' Jaguar engineers; the LS uses a Jag 8" punkin.