If anybody has ever broken the outboard constant velocity joint on their machine you should report it to https://www.cpsc.gov/incident.html. Put your VIN # where they ask for S/N. This is the third one to fail on my 2003 stock Grizzly.
I do not have the pieces from the 1st CV and when the second one broke it ripped the boot and all that was left were small pieces. The material from the 2nd and 3rd CV was the same when viewed with the SEM. The mode of failure on the second one to fail was inconclusive due to missing some of the pieces. Without doing an element analyses the main reason for failure cannot be pin pointed but here are the probable cause for failure based on information I have. Poor manufacturing of the retaining cage with either poor atmospheric control of the environment, poor compacting, and/or improper heat treatment during manufacturing, thus producing a part with large and numerous pores which become stress raisers which become critical in the hardened material, with inconsistence material properties that has locations of brittle material.
There has been talk that early 2004 models have the same problem and with this being a fatigue failure the older or more miles they get on them the more likey they will fail also.
I do not have the pieces from the 1st CV and when the second one broke it ripped the boot and all that was left were small pieces. The material from the 2nd and 3rd CV was the same when viewed with the SEM. The mode of failure on the second one to fail was inconclusive due to missing some of the pieces. Without doing an element analyses the main reason for failure cannot be pin pointed but here are the probable cause for failure based on information I have. Poor manufacturing of the retaining cage with either poor atmospheric control of the environment, poor compacting, and/or improper heat treatment during manufacturing, thus producing a part with large and numerous pores which become stress raisers which become critical in the hardened material, with inconsistence material properties that has locations of brittle material.
There has been talk that early 2004 models have the same problem and with this being a fatigue failure the older or more miles they get on them the more likey they will fail also.