Thread: How to: Replace axle boot.

excellent write up, now get started on the rebuild one,

nice write up, please when you change the toher boot (tranny side) make another write up please, i do not know exactly how do i have to extract the axle....

What do you mean ? You extract the axle just by removing 3 10 MM bolts ( IIRC ) then the axle just " falls out " . Those 3 bolts are the only things holding the axle in.


And if you need to replace the boot, then it's the same as the driver side.

SO to confirm about the outer CV joint. Hard hammering or a slide hammer should get it off? I 'm gonna do this myself this week. I tried bashing it with my dead blow but nothing. I didn't wanna get the heavy metal hammer because I didn't want to mess up the joint surface.

Yessir! A couple of good wacks should do the trick. Just keep tapping harder and harder if the joint becomes stubborn.

If you are talking about the axle out of the car, reasonable hammering will get it of. Even Gentle.

The real problem (especially so when still on the car) is how to secure the axle so that the hammer blows have the desired effect.

I had the out so just secured the axle in a vise (with fabric around it of course) vertically with the end of the cv shaft pointing down. Grabbed the end, first moderate blow moved it a bit, 2nd and 3rd gentle blows had it out.

If still on the car I would get a slide hammer.

Yeah , that's another way to do it. First time i did it in a vise.


The shaft will stay put in the tranny as long as you hold up the cv joint horizontally with one hand while wacking it on the backside. It should slide out suprisingly easy.

Well all this makes this sound easy. This summer it was for me on one car, the other was posessed.

Ok, I did this on my 97 GXE with the 1.6, passenger side only.
I took the axle out because i couldnt get the CV off with a slide hammer.
Put in my bench vise, popped off and back no problem. piece of cake.

Then 3 months later, do the 97 SE-R. pasenger side torn, but replaced drivers as well
what a difference !!!
Passenger side, the axle was rusted and frozen in the hub, took a big puller, lots of swearing, a propane torch with the hot fuel and a hammer to get it out.

Put the axle in the vice, CV was really hard to get out.
When it was out I can see damage to the splines !!!
We brought this car new, and this has never been touched.

I needle file the worst of the damage to the splines, put on the clip and have trouble getting it back in.
Put on another clip, bend it a bit smaller and then have to drift it back in same as getting it off.

So sometimes it doesn't go quite as easy as it sounds.

I undo the strut bolts and not the tie rod ends, not the sway bar.

then i realize the wheel bearings on the passenger side are shot. 10.5 yrs, 110k miles.
(GXE was 10.5 yrs 105K miles, wheel bearings good)

yes they were brought 3-4 months apart.
Exactly the same age when the passenger side let go.

Also another comment, the torque spec for the 32 mm nut is around 150 ft pound minimum, this broke a torque wrench a while back on another car, so i now use a cheapo bar and scale type, do up to 150 or so.

Very good write-up! I never have actually taken apart the cv joint, so if this ever comes up, I will know what to do. Thanks so much.

Also be mindful to tighten the axle nut to spec, too much and you can cause premature wear to the bearings.


Dudeman

Ok, I looked up the spec, 144 to 202 ft pounds !!!
The nut clamps the bearing inner sleeve, so its just steel, and i doubt you can hurt this.
I agree you can mess up the tapered bearing design, but this is a one piece assembly and the two rows of balls roll in groves. So the tension on the nut does not affect the bearing.