Hello,

Thanks for the ideas!

The V70 is finally back on the road. When I started this project, I had no idea that sourcing a couple of axles would be such a pita.

I'll give a re-cap of my adventure just in case it helps out someone else.

My V70 is a non-turbo, auto trans, fwd with 102K miles on it. Both outboard cv boots had torn, right at the small clamp and had slung some grease and the left outboard joint was starting to make noise on full lock turns.

2 of the local auto parts stores had listings for re-built axles for the 99 but what showed up from both places were axles that had the large, external retaining nut and I needed axles that used a retaining bolt.

My options boiled down to-
1) Axles from the Volvo dealer. The left axle was something like $570 and the right axle was about $670.
2) DSS axles.
3) Raxles.com
4) Rebuild my axles at drivelines northwest.

I am not impressed with the 2 of the Volvo dealers in the area. One was less then honest when I bought the car and the other tried to/kind of screwed me on a repair. Didn't feel like giving them $1100 just for parts.

I actually bought a DSS left side axle and installed it. The outboard joint failed right away. Lots of clicking and grinding noises. Scratch DSS.

Next up was Raxles.com and drivelinesnw.com

I emailed raxles and called one of the guys there. He was really nice and had the axles I needed in stock. The downside is that we are on different sides of the country.

Drivelines northwest is pretty close by and they did the re-work in 1 day. The axles came back looking brand new and so far so good. They had a lot of info on the Volvo axles but I don't think they stock the later model axles so you have to send your axles in. From what they said, the reason it is difficult to find later model axles is that Volvo has too many axle configurations for the rebuilders to stock. They also said that if the inboard joints are damaged, they are not repairable.

The actual replacement of the axles was very easy EXCEPT for getting the left axle to release from the transmission. There is a circlip on the axle shaft that locks the shaft into the tranny and it was tough to get it to release. The stock axle wasn't too bad, a big screwdriver popped it right out. Trying to get that #@&%^#@ DSS axle out was really difficult. I was prying hard enough that I was worried about damaging the transmission case. I bought a bigger pry bar and still no luck. Ended up removing the entire left strut/wheel hub assy to get some more room and used a wrecking bar and a BFH and when it released, everything went flying.

Thanks again for the responses.

Cheers!

art