CV Axle replacement

[Triathlete]

It is about a 1/4 inch in from the rim. Itsits in a groove. After cleaning some of the grease away you can feel it with your fingers and of its clean enough you can see it. Use a small flat screwdriver to lift it out.

[VehiTONY]

OK, here is the deal. I believe you guys are talking about the hub, correct? .... I am talking about the shafts that go into the housing for the front axles. Maybe i'm not using the correct terms. ........ What happened is everything came off all the way down to the outer CV joints. Including the outer CV joints themselves where pulled apart since the boots where ripped inside the crease..... after that, from what I understand the shafts should pull right out of the housing, correct?

[nfpgasmask]

OK, you have the outer CV joint and the inner CV joint. We are talking about the inner CV joint here. Meaning, the joint closest to the differential. That joint is retained with a large C-clip on the inside of the "green cup" that the CV is in. It is covered by the INNER boot. You have to remove the inner boot band clamp, then pull the boot off the lip of the cup. Then, using a screwdriver or pick, you have to fish out the large C-clip. The joint will slide out of the "green cup". The "green cup" cannot be removed unless you drop the front axle. So no, we are not talking about the hub assembly. It sounds like you are past that part now.

Take a photo of where you are at and post it, this will help us see where you are at.

Bart

[VehiTONY]

ok, I'm on the same page with you now..... But if that clip is on the inside the green cup, how do you put the new boot back on? I thought the band clamps where permanent and would be destroyed when removed.

[nfpgasmask]

ok, I'm on the same page with you now..... But if that clip is on the inside the green cup, how do you put the new boot back on? I thought the band clamps where permanent and would be destroyed when removed.

Correct. Typically, when you are redoing your CVs, you are replacing the boots at the same time. Even if only your outer boot is cracked, you should replace both boots while you are in there. If you are replacing the entire half shaft with a new one, it should come with the outer shaft already greased and booted, and the inner shaft with the boot on there, and then you just have to grease the cup and CV joint, insert it into the cup, replace the retaining ring, pull the boot over the cup, and attach a new band clamp.

When I did mine, I just cleaned and lubed the CV joints and replaced both boots. As Billy said, you might be able to get away with a heavy duty zip tie, but a proper band clamp attached with the proper tool is really the best way to go.

This is the tool you want, any parts store should have one for sale.

http://www.summitracing.com/nv/parts...3013/overview/

So, are you installing new CVs or just regreasing and replacing boots?

This should also help: http://blog.isuzugeek.org/2011/08/ve...e-rebuild.html

Mind you, when I did mine, I was also replacing the inner axle seals, so I had the whole axle dropped, but the pics might help.

Bart

[Triathlete]

You were typing at the same time as I was Bart

[Triathlete]

Use a heavy duty zip-tie.

[VehiTONY]

thank you!!

[VXorado]

Well, if you can easily feel the worn "band" than you probably need to drop the diff. When mine were bad, I could feel the area that lost metal with my finger. I would think just a couple millimeters of play could cause the clicking and wear out you new CVs.

+1 for the pitman arm puller. It works really well for the tie rods and ball joints.

[PPinzino]

I have decided to order new shafts for my VX I purchased last week, the TOD system seems to function just fine but if I put it in 4LO they both will clack pretty loud...

[tom4bren]

Mark,

Those 'wear' spots don't look that bad to me. I think I'd just take the risk of putting the new components into the old green cup ... but that's just me.

Now this is from the dregs of my memory so ...

You only need to break your ball joints free if you're pulling the axles out of the diff housing. Also, you may not need to break them all free. There's a coupling that bolts to the frame with 4 bolts that are much easier to remove & will allow enough movement of the center link to allow for the axle housing to be dropped.

In order to remove the axles from the diff housing, you need to unbolt the differential brackets from the frame, then unbolt the brackets from the axle housing. That allows you to remove a clip ring that retains a bearing. Once that is removed, you can slide the axle out.

I also ran into a snag that when I dropped the axle housing, one of the green cups wouldn't clear the Lower Control arm. I ended up just grinding a little off of the LCA to allow clearance.

These 3 files are kinda the gospel for CV's & stuff.

[MSHardeman]

Tom, thanks for the info. I ended up talking to Jon (VXorado) yesterday on the phone and he said pretty much the same thing that you did. The wear marks don't look drastic enough to bother replacing the green cup, which means that I don't need to drop my front axle. I did look up the axle removal on my shop CD, and even though it doesn't look hard to do, it does get to be pretty involved. I thought that I would be able to unbolt the axle mounting brackets and wiggle things around enough to get the axle out (and then back in). Jon let me know that there really isn't enough room to do that and that you have to split the axle on the car (removing the passenger side axle) in order to get it out and that the process must be reversed to get the axle housing back in.

I was starting to get worried that the more I took out, the more chances I would have to mess the seals up. Since I don't have a leak at the axle seal right now, I sure didn't want to create one. I think I'm going to follow both or your advice and break the new SurTrack axles down and just install the half shafts in my existing green cups. If the clacking continues then I know what I need to do.

I do have one split boot on my passenger side lower ball joint so I'll replace that too, but now the job shouldn't take too long to get everything back together.

Thanks all for the information, suggestions and hand holding.

[nfpgasmask]

That's good if you can avoid dropping the axle. It is a pain in my book.

Bart

[MSHardeman]

OK, so I decided to leave the axle housing where it is and just replace the half shafts. Sorry to those who were looking for a complete front axle removal how/to, but the Workshop manual has a pretty good write up on it.

I have broken the SurTrack axles down now and separated the half shaft from the axle. My question now is; is it OK to mix grease? The inner CV joint has grease in it already, but I want to pack my existing green cup with grease to make up for the bit that was lost to the new green cup. Is it OK to just add the synthetic bearing grease that I have to the grease that is already there, or should I clean the new joint out completely and re-pack with one type of grease?

Thanks to all for the help so far. This should be done in the next day, or so, and you won't have to read about it any more.

[evillecutter]

i took my axles out to change the cv boots and it was a much smaller job than i anticipated - i used the writeup with pics form a member on here and it made it much clearer - did one side myself but the other side was much easier with a helper