Toward the end of the last riding season I noticed my inboard CV boots were starting to split, so wile I had my Pilot down for porting and a rebuild I figure now is a good time to replace the boot's. Sometime in November I wondered if maybe Rockford Drive line had any parts that would fit the Pilot so I sent them a Email asking if I could bring up my axles sometime after the first of the year they said sure. So on 1-12-00 I decided to take a drive to their plant and check out the place since it is only about 90 miles away. When I got there I went in the front door and got funny looks carrying a box with my Pilot axles, new CV boots from Honda and service manual, They said I needed to go around back to the service department but after telling them I had Pilot axles they kind of perked up and welcomed me with open arms and walked me through the plant to the repair/rebuild shop. I was not in the shop for 5 minutes and there was 2 guy's looking and measuring my Pilot axles. Their mechanic gave me a lesson on tear down, cleaning, inspecting and installing new bearings, races, CV boots and a few tricks of the trade during the reassembly of the entire axle assembly. They have a nifty little driver tool for removing the out board inner race from the axle without having to cut the axle. (that is why Honda wants to sell you a whole axle) When the mechanic started on the second axle one of the managers gave me a tour of their manufacturing facility, You never seen more pieces and parts for drive shafts and CV drive axle components. They make parts for everything on and off-road they even make their own CV boot's in there injection moulding department. When the mechanics were done they had replaced my inner and outer races, ball bearings, C clip's, cir clips and CV boot's inboard and outboard on both axles along with repacking the assembly's with fresh CV grease. (A complete rebuild) After comparing the Rockford Drive Line CV boot to the new Honda CV boot the Rockford CV boot looks to be a much better and thicker product and they are made in America by Americans with materials made in America (I checked the box of material they were putting in the moulding machine wile I was getting my tour, Made in Ackron Ohio :-) Honda gets 15.00 for the inboard boot and 45.0 00 for the outboard boot. Rockford Drive Line get's 00.00 for the inboard and 00.00 for the outboard boot. Over all the people at Rockford Drive Line are outstanding they bent over backwards to help me out and were very eager to see what they had in parts for a Honda Pilot. When I left we they were working on prices and part numbers for Pilot CV boot kit's and CV rebuild kits.They also have U-joint's the FL350 Odyssey.
For those of you that already have the 350 U-joints from Rockford Drive Line they need your feed back please email them and let them know how the U-joints are working out good or bad, They worked real hard to produce a one of a kind U-joint for the FL350 and need to know if you are still breaking them. Future projects for Rockford Drive Line: They want to fabricate ATV axles and complete replacement axle assemblies. Rockford Drive Line's web page FWD Service