I am completely stumped. I've gone through 6 driver side axles on my 88 civic Dx in the past 3 weeks. The issue didn't start until the clutch completely went out, I replaced it with and exedy OE replacement and a resurfaced OEM flywheel. The transmission is from a 91 civic Si.

The car was at 270,000 miles and was still on the OE axles, the boots were torn and they were making all sorts of clicking noises so i replaced them with some autozone axles.



So the first week with the new clutch felt weird. It was more grabby then what I was used to but I noticed Vibrations under acceleration. Made a wrong turn and when I made a U-turn *BOOM* driver side axle blew out... Or at least so I thought.

I get it home and check it out. It wasn't blown it was badly dislocated.



So I replaced it under warranty.



driving around the block it felt normal. So I took it thru Santa Susana Pass for some spirited driving. One of the left sweepers another *BOOM* took it back home to do it all over again.



This time it was bad... Bearings falling out onto my driveway bad.

So I'm thinking what the f*** can this be? Under examination I notice all motor mounts are blown out! (They weren't blown when I took them out to swap the clutch.) so I replaced them all. Put the new axle in went around the block parked and piped my hood and saw this



now I'm checking lower control arms, torsion rods, lower ball joints, ect. But everything looks normal. It's almost as if the axle is too short so the shaft pops out of the boot and when I straighten the wheel it pops it back into place. I know a lot of people have issues with autozone axles but I honestly think if I got axles from Raxles the same thing will happen except this time I have no warranty and even if they do come with a warranty it'll take a week for them to come in.

Please help me out you guys. I can post pictures of what ever you need just please give me your opinion.

 

I have Raxles axels on my 94 RS after blowing stock replacements from Lordco within 100km. I have a GS-R trany w/ PhantomGrip LSD and a 75 short ZEX system and I autocross, the Raxles are over 9 year old so far and no issues. 94

 

Seems unlikely the axle would be faulty that many times.

Maybe put the car up on stands, and start the car in gear with the bonnet up and get someone to turn the wheels left to right lock while you look for anything odd.

 

i've not seen this specific problem with axles before. but im going to give some general thoughts that I hope are helpful:

autozone axles really are that shitty. they are generic and are made for as wide of an application as possible. the reason they dont ask for core any more is because they are made so cheap from scratch, that kind of cost doesnt come without quality compromise. and they typically REQUIRE you to remove the hub ring from the inside of the knuckle (because theyre also made for integras and other hondas, but arent really the same OEM shape), or it will lock the joint in place as it interferes. But nowhere do they instruct you of this. I'm sort of wondering if this is occurring at certain times and causing the axle to lock up.

the hub ring is a metal ring and pops off quit easily and hard to put back on if needed. you can see it here in this pic, slightly green.
http://www.raxles.com/CMFiles/Images...yThumbnail.jpg

lastly, raxles are great because they reuse OEM shafts and replace the joints with high quality ones. like a proper rebuilt axle should be.