Constant velocity plunging joint and method of producing a constant velocity plunging joint

A constant velocity plunging joint, comprising:

• an outer joint part with an outer part longitudinal axis and circumferentially distributed outer ball tracks, wherein at least portions of the outer ball tracks being hardened, wherein the outer ball tracks being mechanically finish-machined before hardening, i.e. being mechanically unmachined after hardening;
• an inner joint part with an outer spherical guide face and a plurality of circumferentially distributed inner ball tracks, wherein at least portions of the inner ball tracks are hardened;
• balls, which are arranged in pairs of tracks, each comprised of an outer ball track and an inner ball track;
• a ball cage, which is arranged between the outer joint part and the inner joint part and which has a cage inner face, a cage outer face and circumferentially distributed cage windows, which each receive at least one of the balls,
• wherein, in a cross-section through the plunging joint in an aligned condition and with the balls in contact with the outer ball tracks, an outer ring line through all ball centers of the balls has an irregular shape with a largest outer ring line diameter and a smallest outer ring line diameter, wherein the largest outer ring line diameter is greater than the smallest outer ring line diameter by an outer diameter difference value of at least 0.15%, and wherein a mean outer ring line diameter is defined as half the sum of the largest outer ring line diameter and the smallest outer ring line diameter;
• wherein the inner ball tracks of the inner joint part are produced in such a way that in cross-section through the plunging joint in an aligned condition, with the balls in contact with the inner ball tracks, an inner ring line through all ball centers of the balls has a non-circular shape with a largest inner ring line diameter and a smallest inner ring line diameter, wherein the largest inner ring line diameter is greater than the sum of the mean outer ring line diameter and 0.25 times the outer diameter difference value, and wherein the smallest inner ring line diameter is smaller than the difference between the mean outer ring line diameter and 0.25 times the outer diameter difference value, and
• wherein the inner joint part is mounted relative to the outer joint part such that an angle formed between the largest inner ring line diameter and the largest outer ring line diameter is smaller than 30°.