CV Boot Replacement Plan - Correct me where I am wrong

[tom4bren]

Tom...no need to seperate ball joints. You just remove the 4 bolts that mount it to the control arm. Much easier.

Yah, I didn't learn that trick till after I'd done it the last time.

[JAMAS]

I am working on this now and cannot seem to get the ball joint bracket over the lower control arm. What am I doing wrong?

Help!

[LittleBeast]

It must come down before clearing lower control arm. If your upper control arm will not come down low enough if you have a spare jack you can raise the lower control arm slightly. I am sure you can figure it out though. Just pull the ball joint plate thing down and rotate it diagonally slightly.

[tom4bren]

It must come down before clearing lower control arm. If your upper control arm will not come down low enough if you have a spare jack you can raise the lower control arm slightly. I am sure you can figure it out though. Just pull the ball joint plate thing down and rotate it diagonally slightly.

X2.

An extra jack under the LCA - then wiggle, curse, pull, shove ...

Actually it's not that bad once you lift up on the LCA with the extra jack.

[nfpgasmask]

I bought boots at my local Napa and they seemed fine. I recommend getting the CV boot clamp tool, makes things a lot easier, like $30.

Bart

[bartmanS4]

I bought boots at my local Napa and they seemed fine. I recommend getting the CV boot clamp tool, makes things a lot easier, like $30.

Bart

I replaced my boots last year with Mechatechs and already had one tear on the driver side. At Bart and Jamas' recommendation I just re-replaced both drive side boots with the Napa ones. Much beefier and should hold up a whole lot better. I'm going to buy two more for the other side to keep as spares for when one of the others tear.

[JAMAS]

Thank you both for your replies. I did get past that point only to run into more trouble.

I finally got everything removed, cleaned and ready for re-assembly and as I was putting my outer boot on and burping out the air, I see that there is a small tear in the brand new dorman boot that I bought. So my VX is currently sitting on a jack stand and I am going to have to get another new boot. I wont return the other one until I get something to replace it. Its currently keeping the outer CV clean.


In the process, I came across a few items that I had questions about.

1. one of the ball bearings from the inner CV fell on the garage floor. Should I be too concerned about damage? It looks fine.

2. When the ball joint was resting on the lower control arm, some of the lubricant/greese from the ball joint was forced out of the bottom. Is that a problem?

3. When repacking the grease back into the inner CV, do I just put a glob in there and then put the CV back in, then pack more grease in?


Thank you to everyone for your help.

Hopefully this CV saga will end and I will have enough knowledge to make this quicker/easier the second time around.

[tom4bren]

Thank you both for your replies. I did get past that point only to run into more trouble.

WooHoo. Ain't it funner-n-innythang.

I finally got everything removed, cleaned and ready for re-assembly and as I was putting my outer boot on and burping out the air, I see that there is a small tear in the brand new dorman boot that I bought. So my VX is currently sitting on a jack stand and I am going to have to get another new boot. I wont return the other one until I get something to replace it. Its currently keeping the outer CV clean.

Bummer. Mebbe you can patch it with some RTV & keep as a spare. Where was the tear?


In the process, I came across a few items that I had questions about.

1. one of the ball bearings from the inner CV fell on the garage floor. Should I be too concerned about damage? It looks fine.

Nope. They are hardened steel. Yer good.

2. When the ball joint was resting on the lower control arm, some of the lubricant/greese from the ball joint was forced out of the bottom. Is that a problem?

Should be OK.

3. When repacking the grease back into the inner CV, do I just put a glob in there and then put the CV back in, then pack more grease in?

That's perzakly what I did.


Thank you to everyone for your help.

It's what we do.

Hopefully this CV saga will end and I will have enough knowledge to make this quicker/easier the second time around.

Hope you don't have to.

[JAMAS]

Thanks Tom. The tear was close to the large side of the boot. The tear wasnt all the way through. It actually looked like a flaw in the manufacturing, but I definitely wasnt about to assemble everything only to redo the process in a week.

I am going to try the NAPA boot. From some reading on a few "high lift" forums, they say they are pretty meaty. Figure they cant be any worse than not working. Plus Bart said they worked fine for him.

[tom4bren]

If the tear is under the band, then it'll be fine. I agree though that it'd be safer to get a new one.

[JAMAS]

Update:

I got the new boots from Napa. They were MUCH beefier than the dorman ones. They appear downright OEM(ish).

I got both the outer and inner since the quality seemed better, I am going to replace both, but save my inner as a spare.

I have one new question though, the NAPA inner boot (separate part number) contains a larger bag of green grease. Seems less "greasy" in the bag than the black smaller bag for the outer, but maybe I am wrong. Its a larger area to fill with grease though.

Can I just use any old "CV Grease" in the inner and not worry about it?

EDIT:

Reading some "googles" looks like green might be better....Hopefully I dont booger it up.

[tom4bren]

IIRC, I just put the provided pouches away & used synthetic axle grease instead.

[JAMAS]

I completed my passenger side CVBoot swap last night. I have yet to take it for a test drive, but everything seems okay based on visual inspection alone.

During said visual inspection, I did a compare against my driver side to make sure I didnt forget anything and realized that my driver side boot is very very worn and appears to be on its way to splits-ville. I will be replacing those boots in the next couple days.

I have no road experience with them, but after holding an OEM, Dorman, and NAPA CV Boot in my hand, I can tell you that the NAPA feels the most heavy duty. Feels like they could take some hits without breaking.

[tom4bren]

... but after holding an OEM, Dorman, and NAPA CV Boot in my hand, I can tell you that the NAPA feels the most heavy duty. Feels like they could take some hits without breaking.

Yah, I'd posted this pic a long time ago (L-R: AutoZone, MechaTech, Dorman):

[Triathlete]

Now that you've done it once the next one will be a breeze. Should be a 2 hour job