Cv Joint Gaiter

[Guest gs fan]

I wondered if anyone has replaced the CV joint gaiters ?? My R.H. side one is burst and I've read my Haynes manual and it says you only have to undo the driveshaft nut and the lower ball joint nut and pull the hub from the splines , is this so ?? Anyway if anyone can give me any advice i'd be very gratefull ....

[coastline taxis]

yes the n/s one is as easy as that. done loads of them and would advise if its your first one to put a bucket under the gear box as youve chance to pull the shaft out of the box also it will probally be easier if you do take the shaft out altogether and do the job on a bench. If you havent got the tool for clamping the metal bands onto new boot then use a jubilee clip as the plastic ties dont last very long and youl end up doing the job twice

[techbod]

the drive shaft is a one and all unit so you need a boot spreader and a flex C/V boot about £9.00,

 

the problem with these drive shafts is there not like the vauxhall type where you can knock with a hammer the bearings are part of the half shaft/drive shaft,

 

you could look on eBay for a cone which is cheaper but a pain.

[coastline taxis]

Once youve got the shaft of the car secure it in a vice or workbench

remove the old cv boot twisting the metal ties of with a pair of plier

now clean all the grease out of the cv joint or it will end up everywhere (and youl have new grease in the kit.

Now secure the shaft and keep the cv joint level with the shaft and tap the rim of the cv joint with a plastic or rubber hammer if yove got one if not then a normal hammer .It will seem like its not going to come off but it will. Once off youl see the splines on the shaft and a circlip give them all a

good clean

Now put new rubber boot on and push it right down the shaft so its out the road. Now line the joint up with the splines on the shaft and push it down itl go a inch or so and stop you now have to comprsee the circlip into its grove so that the splines can go into the joint use a couple of screwdrivers for this. its better if you can get a xtra pair of hands to help you for that bit if not turn the shaft round and use your stomach or chest to apply pressure to the joint.

 

once on fill joint with grease and pull the rubber down into place and secure it

Job done sounds hard but isnt

[Guest gs fan]

Once youve got the shaft of the car secure it in a vice or workbench

remove the old cv boot twisting the metal ties of with a pair of plier

now clean all the grease out of the cv joint or it will end up everywhere (and youl have new grease in the kit.

Now secure the shaft and keep the cv joint level with the shaft and tap the rim of the cv joint with a plastic or rubber hammer if yove got one if not then a normal hammer .It will seem like its not going to come off but it will. Once off youl see the splines on the shaft and a circlip give them all a

good clean

Now put new rubber boot on and push it right down the shaft so its out the road. Now line the joint up with the splines on the shaft and push it down itl go a inch or so and stop you now have to comprsee the circlip into its grove so that the splines can go into the joint use a couple of screwdrivers for this. its better if you can get a xtra pair of hands to help you for that bit if not turn the shaft round and use your stomach or chest to apply pressure to the joint.

 

once on fill joint with grease and pull the rubber down into place and secure it

Job done sounds hard but isnt

Thanks for the advice as ever ... I'll have a go at it I think , and will let you know how I get on !!

PS.. It's the off-side one . I was thinking when looking at it that it might be possible to cut the clips on the inside boot and remove the short part of the shaft by pulling the tripod from the joint , this would save removing the long driveshaft , then I thought I'd replace the inner boot too . What do you think???

[coastline taxis]

If your confident enough then go ahead and do it although i would recomend removing the shaft as a whole unit (2two 11 or 12mm nut and its out). Replacing both boots is good workmanship just be carefull that you dont let one of the outer races come off the inner cv joint as you cant get a replacement and have to buy a whole shaft

[paul.h]

techbod mentions a cone in his note. These can be bought for a few pounds from car accessory shops and allow a boot to be stretched over the CV joint without having to split it. I have used one of these, maybe on a Nissan and it worked ok. From memory, the boot is turned inside out, the cone greased with something like washing up liquid and the boot slid on from the narrow end and then over the CV joint and then turned inside out again. The boot may have been a stretch type but I am not sure.

[Guest gs fan]

techbod mentions a cone in his note. These can be bought for a few pounds from car accessory shops and allow a boot to be stretched over the CV joint without having to split it. I have used one of these, maybe on a Nissan and it worked ok. From memory, the boot is turned inside out, the cone greased with something like washing up liquid and the boot slid on from the narrow end and then over the CV joint and then turned inside out again. The boot may have been a stretch type but I am not sure.

I've not seen these cones , but they sound interesting !!!

[Guest gs fan]

If your confident enough then go ahead and do it although i would recomend removing the shaft as a whole unit (2two 11 or 12mm nut and its out). Replacing both boots is good workmanship just be carefull that you dont let one of the outer races come off the inner cv joint as you cant get a replacement and have to buy a whole shaft

Well I have to admit I've bottled it C/line.....

I called the dealer in Dumfries from work this morning to enquire about the cost of the the boot kit which is £ 27.50 , I then enquired about how much they'd charge to fit it and was quoted £40 . I thought about all that crawling around under the car with the likely grief that come with these jobs and decided £40 wasn't so bad .

i'm sure i'd have managed it ,but I'd got a list of tools that i needed to buy , like the big socket for the D/shaft nut , a crimping tool and I'm not sure if my old B&D work mate would have been an adequate vice. Thanks to you and all for the advice as ever though .

Do you think £67 is reasonable ??

Jack.

[paul.h]

A google search on 'CV joint cone' came back with Bailcast Duraboot - I remember now this was the make of gaiter I used. The website with a pdf from bailcast shows a picture of an air operated boot spreader and also a plastic cone similar to the one I used. The boot has a guarantee of 2 years.

 

Likely cost to do the job yourself with one of these is around £20 including the boot, cone and probably a new hub nut but including time to get the bits and do the job you can say goodbye to up to a day. So an extra £47 for somebody to do the job for you (and guarantee it) looks good.

[coastline taxis]

£67 is a very good price as 10 packets of fags is at least £50

[Guest gs fan]

£67 is a very good price as 10 packets of fags is at least £50

When you put it like that yes it seem a good price , I'm going to try to stop the weed now!!!!!!!!!!!!

If the other one ever goes I thing I'd try one of those Bailcast stretch boots that T/bod and P/h refered to ,been looking at them on the net and there is some detailed video and photo footage . The universal one is not suitable for the C5 as the driveshft is too thick , but the do a duraboot one that is on the list , they make it look real easy but maybe it's one of those things that's not so easy in reality ?? What you reckon .

[coastline taxis]

Give it a go it as easy as it sounds. Having said that ive never tried one of the cones as was taught to alway take the joint off to clean out the old grease and clean the joint up. Dont know about the M.O.T side of things but recently on the taxi tests (the majority of our work is taxis) they have been failing the cv boots that have been secured with plastic fastners and making them put the metal bands on instead.

[Guest gs fan]

Give it a go it as easy as it sounds. Having said that ive never tried one of the cones as was taught to alway take the joint off to clean out the old grease and clean the joint up. Dont know about the M.O.T side of things but recently on the taxi tests (the majority of our work is taxis) they have been failing the cv boots that have been secured with plastic fastners and making them put the metal bands on instead.

I did the cv boot on my last car ,a volvo 460 , it took me ages ,on that car you had to take the whole hub assembly off ,but didn't have to split the joint as the procedure was to remove the tripod joint and slip it on from the top , the only reason i tackled the job was the car was 12 yo and the cheapest quote i could get was £150 , I tied the ends of the joint with plastic clips and they leaked and i had to re-visit the job and fitted the metal ones which looked like metal cable ties but they were much better and stopped the leaks , so maybe the MOT people have noticed that the plastic ones are crap.

I tend to agree with you when you say it's better to service the joint after the gaiter has burst cause there is bound to be some muck in it which should be cleaned out. Maybe the cones and stretchy boots are ok for a quick fix ,but not a job done right perhaps.

[paul.h]

In the June 2009 Car Mechanics mag there is a short article on the Tips From The Trade section showing one of these cones being used on a Peugeot 209. Their cone also has a metal frame to help push the boot along the cone.

[DaveHerns]

I hope the garage didn't use one of those split boots that clip/are glued together