CV Axle replacement

[nfpgasmask]

Hey Mark,

First off, I think for the sake of everyone reading this, that the term "CV half shaft" refers to both the inner and outer CV unit as a whole. Basically, everything from the inner CV balls and cage to the tip of the axle shaft. That whole thing is your CV half shaft. I think they call them that because it is only one half of the axle assembly, the other half being the other side.

I've never bought half shafts for the VX, but I have bought them several times for the Trooper, and it comes with the outer CV greased, booted and ready to go, and the inner ready for grease with the boot in place just needing to be put into the green cup, and clamped down. I do not think you could (or should) break apart the replacement shafts, you should probably just use the whole unit.

Now, as for the needle bearing in the knuckle, I think you have to press them out. I did not press mine out. We have a parts washer at work, so I just brought them to work, cleaned them thoroughly, and regreased them. I don't think you really need to replace them unless you got a lot of water in there and they got rusty, which I have seen before if the seals were leaking.

A pickle fork is really cheap, and you can get one anywhere, however a pickle fork will destroy the boots on your tie rods and steering centerlink if you need to use it. When I did my VX front end, I replaced the tie rod ends, ball joints and the steering link at the same time. Once you are in that deep you might as well. You will find that it is difficult, but not impossible to remove the CV half shaft with the ball joints still attached the knuckle. You might have just enough clearance to push the joint all the way in as far as you can, and slide the outer most portion of the axle out the back of the knuckle. But it ain't easy. Hell, none of this front end work is really easy, or cheap for that matter.

I am right in the middle of installing 4.77s into my Trooper so I am right with you guys on this. It's a hard, messy job for the do-it-yourselfer.

Bart

[MSHardeman]

Bart, I bought both of the complete SurTrack axle from the third member out to the wheel ( http://surtrack.mycarparts.net/produ..._id=3024658431 ). It came completely assembled with both inner and outer CV joints complete with boots installed. I am in the middle of an internal debate now, since my "green cup" is OK. Debate is whether to continue forward with replacing the complete axle from the third member out or to disassemble the brand new complete axle and just install the half shafts in my existing green cup. That way I wouldn't need to get into the axle housing at all and wouldn't have to drop the whole axle assembly.

I have a feeling that I'm just going to continue on and install the complete SurTrack axle as that was my plan in the first place. I currently have the driver side half shaft out, and the green cup exposed. The next step is to disassemble the passenger side and then drop the axle housing so I can get the axles out of it. I'm just hoping that I get all of the oil seals installed correctly and don't end up creating a leak where there isn't one now.

Thanks for the heads up on the needle bearing in the knuckle. I'll just give it a good cleaning and then re-pack it with grease before re-installing everything. Hopefully I can get everything put back together without having to remove the knuckles.

I'm sure I'll be asking more questions as I go along.

[nfpgasmask]

Ahhh, I see. So ok, yeah, in order to install that whole unit, you will indeed have to drop the whole front axle. Or at least I think it would be pretty damn difficult to do it without taking the axle housing out completely.

This is where the frustration begins, because I had one serious hell of a time getting the axle to drop clear without removal of the steering centerlink. I am in the same boat right at this moment with my Trooper, switching to 4.77s and in the process of doing so, I have to remove the front axle entirely. For the life of me, I cannot get the axle to drop all the way, because the steering link is in the way. So I am now faced with removing it, which is a serious pain and will likely force you to replace it as well. I've never been able to get one off without mangling the boots.

The pisser in your case is that if you had two extra CV band clamps, you could just leave your axle up and do it from the inner CV out.

Good luck,

Bart

[VXorado]

Mark,

If you end up dropping the diff to replace the complete axle assembly (half shaft+jack shaft), make sure to get new seals for the axle shafts. When I replaced mine (the third time ), I reused the old seals and got a leak. It was awful having to drop the entire diff again to replace one seal. Honestly, I wouldn't drop the diff if the green cups are in good shape. The OEM green cups will be stronger than these aftermarket sets. In this case, just make sure the new CVs are the same size as the OEM CVs.

[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.....