CV Axle replacement

[VXorado]

I do not think you could (or should) break apart the replacement shafts, you should probably just use the whole unit.

Unfortunately, I don't think you can replace the halfshafts with the jack shaft attached. There's just not enough clearance on the lower A-arm to green cup.

[nfpgasmask]

Unfortunately, I don't think you can replace the halfshafts with the jack shaft attached. There's just not enough clearance on the lower A-arm to green cup.

Yeah, when I wrote that, I didn't realize Mark had the whole unit green cup included. I thought they were just the half shafts, and I have only heard from folks that you can do it without removing the knuckle. I always remove the knuckle and replace as much as I can when I am in there.

And Mark, VXorado is right, do the inner seals if you do decide to drop the front axle. This is the only reason I dropped my front axle to begin with, because both seals were leaking.

Oddly enough, I have never had these seals leak on any of my Troopers, but my VX was leaking there pretty good.

Bart

[MSHardeman]

OK, so should I just leave the axle housing in place, with the stock axles installed, and just break down the new SurTrack axles and install the half shafts? It sounds like getting the axle housing back into place with the complete axle assemblies installed is going to be tough if not impossible (without having to replace a bunch of other stuff).

I'm close to a NAPA so I can walk over and get some extra CV grease as well as a Some CV boot clamps and tool.

I originally thought that I would need to replace the whole axle because a couple of years ago my driver side inner boot split and I didn't realize it for a while. The green cup ended up getting pitted and scarred. The shop I took it to removed the axle and sent it to a shop to have the pits welded up and then had the whole green cup re machined to spec. When the CVs started clacking I assumed that it was the green cup repair finally giving up, but when I des assembled the driver side half shaft all kinds of rusty water started leaking out of the outer CV boot so now I am guessing that that joint is the problem. So now maybe just replacing the half shaft is the way to go. Might as well replace the passenger side AND repack the front bearings while I'm at it. I have all of the seals to do the complete axle swap, but that might be more than I want to bite off right now. This IS my daily driver after all.

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah, that's a tough call, Mark. Dropping the axle is a pretty big job, imo.

Bart

[MSHardeman]

Argh. I may have spoken too soon. I cleaned out Vicki's green cup and it does look like there is some wear in it. I took apart an extra complete axle that I have to compare the two. First the spare axle green cup:


As far as I know the CV joint is good. The boot is in tact and it looks original.

Now Vicki's green cup:

If you look closely at the back of the cup you can see some marks on the ridges between the ball races. I don't know if that is enough to make me yank the whole axle though. Tea. Guess the only way to tell would be to leave the green cup, install the new half shaft and see if it clacks or not.

What do y'all think?

Luckily I am off of work this week so if I have to pull the whole axle housing I have the time. I'll just need to get new ball joints and new tie rod ends because they'll all need to come out to get the whole axle assembly out, disassembled, reassembled and reinstalled.

[MSHardeman]

It looks like, according to Tom (tom4bren) and Chris (Marlin) ( http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...threadid=24109 ) you can get the tie rods out of the steering knuckles by either using a pitman arm puller and/or giving the tie rid ends a good whack with a hammer.

I'm guessing that with the tie rods disconnected you could move the knuckles out of he way enough to put one end of the axle assembly up in place, then slide it all the way to that side to give toe enough room to get the other side up and in place. It all seems to make sense laying under the VX looking at it. You might need to disconnect the front drive shaft to allow the axle to move around enough, and you might need to turn the steering to one full lock to get the steering rod out of the way, but just maybe.....