The housings are pretty much the same as the earlier ones. Same thickness of steel, etc. I've heard of problems with them tearing near the factory perch welds though. I think it might be a heat problem in the factory weld area? Building your own perch with a larger contact area on the housing should solve that problem. I've never had any problems with mine, but of course I trussed/shaved it and made my own perches. I think the axle is definitely worth keeping though for the stronger 3rd and extra width.


I also had a stage 3 AC blowout about 9 years ago (snowboarding). I had surgury and I'm very glad I did. They put a screw through the middle of my collar bone into my scapula and moved some lesser used or unneeded ligament from somewhere nearby over to replace the blown out one at the AC. The screw came out a month or so later (good thing because that bugger hurt!). Its 99% as good as new (lost a TEENY bit of range of motion reaching behind my back). I have no bump or any problems like I've seen people with even lesser separations have. Zero pain or arthritis type stuff. I would definitely recommend getting a second opinion!

The guy that did the work specializes in hand/wrist/elbow/shoulder and supposedly has fixed up some fairly famous pitchers and stuff... http://orthodoc.aaos.org/normanpoppenmd/