Hello all...
So I decided that the winter finally broke in Syracuse today, and decided to swap the Gislaveds. Much to my dismay, I've found that the outer driver's side CV boot tore recently and has commenced spraying lovely black grease over my wheel well.

So I figured I'd buy the $10 kit (for outer CV only) from eeuroparts and do it myself, but not without asking some questions first. To begin, what kind of time frame are we looking at for the necessity of replacement? I haven't noticed anything while driving (yet) but don't want to ruin the joint, either. If I can just drive the car around town a little for now, I think I can get to the job in the next few weeks.

Are there any tips (I've done a search that found little) on making the job go smoother? Haynes makes it sound too easy.

And finally, the million dollar question: should I replace the inner CV boot while I have the thing apart, even though it looks fine? Or should I follow the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra and leave it alone? The car has 115k on it.

Thanks!

That really depends upon what school of thought you subscribe to. I subscribe to the "if it is torn open, it is contaminated and you should just replace it with a rebuilt axle and if it is cracked but not split open then just re-boot the existing" the second school of thought is basically "screw it just reboot it and it will be fine" I know people that I consider to be oustanding technicians that subscribe to both schools. For the most part the tech doing your job is not getting a piece of the parts profit and would stand to make more money if he re-booted rather than replaced it so the desire to replace your torn open axle instead of re-booting it is not so much greed driven as it is driven by a desire to do the best job possible and have the least likelyhood of the job boomeranging on him. So to summarize it, if you are going to hang a new (reconditioned) axle then time is not real critical because you are going to be replacing it anyhow, but if you are set on replacing only the boot then the more you drive it around the more grease you sling out and the more crap and road grime you will allow in and then yes, you will want to address that issue ASAP.

As far as the inner boot goes, I have always just done both boots because they come in a set from the parts department and I am already 3/4 of the way in there already, might as well do it. Truth be known that inner boot probably will never wear out because it does not turn like the outer one does. In fact if you look at the late model stuff that has gone to tougher longer lasting boots you will notice that the inner boot is still made of the same old stuff.

Now as far as the R&R goes, once you have done a couple of them it is about a 45 minute operation but the first one can be a real bitch unless you know what you are doing. I will not even adress getting the axle out and on the bench, if you cannot figure that part out then you should just pay someone to do it for you. Once the axle is out and on the bench and you have the old boot cut off and are ready to remove the outer joint:

1) wipe away all excess grease and orient the axle so that the circlip that holds the out joint on is at 12:00.
2) reach in with a pocket screwdriver and make sure that the circlip is free to move left and right in it's retaining groove. Chances are excellent that it will be jammed and immoveable. This is because you have to pound on the end of the axle to drive it out of the front hub. It is this action that seats the outer joint back against that circlip.
3)using a hammer and a long drift or punch give the inner knuckle of that joint a couple of love taps (light ones) to drive the knuckle forward just a touch, now check that circlip and it should be loose. If it is not loose it is because you either drove it too far or not far enough, figure it out and get it to the sweet spot where that clip is free to move.
4) with the clip free you need to spread it, hold it in the spread position, take the same hammer and long punch and drive that same inner knuckle off of the axle shaft. You need to drive it just far enough forward that the circlip is out of the groove and you can now release it and it will stay open and you can drive the joint the rest of the way off.

Now if you read step four closely you will realize that you need three hands to do that (hold the clip open, hold the punch, swing the hammer). Everybody has their own way of doing it but the idea is you need some way to hold that clip open while you work the hammer and punch. Myself I have a set of spreader pliers that hold it open and then I use an air hammer to drive the inner knuckle off.

Your next hurdle is going to be the clamps to put it all back together with. I do not know about the kit that you are getting but I have yet to get an aftermarket kit (even if it was the OE stuff) that had all of the correct clamps in it. I usually end up putting one or two universal clamps on depending upon whether I am working on a turbo or not. The universal stuff requires yet another special tool to get them on right. The OE clamps are Oetiker clamps and they require a special tool as well but it can be faked fairly easily.

There you have it, clear as mud right? If you have any questions, I'd imagine you will, feel free to e-mail me and I'll see if I can't point you in the correct direction.


Mark

Thanks for the description!

I'm going to first attempt the boot kit, since it's significantly less than a rebuilt axle... the boot is torn, but I don't think it's been that way for long. I'm going to take my chances and repack the CV, but I'm not going to drive it until that's done.

Two final questions: Haynes says to soak the joint in "solvent" to remove the grease. Would rubbing alchohol work for this? Or is there something special I should use?

Also, when reassembling the hub and CV joint, Haynes says to use a bead of "metal adhesive" on the CV joint splines. Would Lok-Tite be what they are talking about?

Thanks again, you'll probably get an email or two from me during the job.