Hi all: I read all the writeups and I have an FSM, but I am still not certain of two things: is it humanly possible to change the CV boots without pulling the axles from the transaxle and do I need a vise?

If you have changed your CV boots, can you please describe the tools you had to use and other equipment. I am planning to use this opportunity to to a tranny fluid change so I have another question. Is it possible to change fluid in the torque converter too? I was told a special tool is needed to completely flush that...

 

the boot i believe you can do with the axle on the car..but you do need a big socket to remove the axle nut in the middle. (i'm assuming your outter boot is torn and not the inner one).

circlip tool, CV boot strap tool, lots of grease, a lot of brake cleaner or chem dip. other than that i believe it's pretty straight forward.

can't change the fluid in the TC...you can use a machine to flush the ATF around or use the cooler lines to get the fluids around.

 

My initial idea from the tranny perspective was to switch from generic ATF to AMSOIL synthetic. But if a lot of old fluid will remain in the donut, the benefit of AMSOIL would be diminished, will it not?

What is the axle nut size? 32 mm or 36 mm?

 

well here's the thing with ATF...they tell you to use about 2.5 gallons (yes gallons) to flush through the tranny. this basically replaces all the old stuff with new stuff...but at the same time you waste a good deal of the new stuff when it circulates...but in this case you're not diluting the amsoil.

so your call if you want to push that many gallons of amsoil through or not....i know amsoil is not cheap.

forgot the size of the axle nut...matt or jeff should know.

 

You have said 'alot of brake cleaner'. How many cans?

 

figure it this way...the cleaner the better.

i go through a can pretty fast...so maybe 4-5 cans should do it.

 

axle nut is 36mm for sure

 

Forewarned is fore-armed. Thank you guys for the insight. I am still puzzled whether to change to AMSOIL or not... Prolly not worth it on an 11 yo car under the circumstances (that it will need a couple changes to become truly effective).

 

i've been pushing amsoil ATF for a while now. seems to hold up better in my abusive driving.

 

If you CV boots have been ripped for any length of time, replace the whole axle. If it's the inner CV, you should pull the axle. If it's the outer CV, you can tap the CV joint off the axle and tap it back on. But it's pain to do it that way. Also not worth it if the axle has more than 80-100k on them anyway.

 

My boots just started to crack on the outside surface and the cracks are non penetrating. What happens to the axles after 100K? Is that miles? Than it is exactly how many is on the car. I was hoping I would not need to change any hard parts - would have made a huge hole in my wallet.

 

Up to you I guess. Old CVs can cause vibrations in the drivetrain etc.. Also when one boot is going bad, the others are sure to follow. So let's say you slave all day on this one boot. 2 weeks later the other side goes. Fine, repeat. Then 1 month later one of the inner boots go bad. Great, now you have to actually take the axle off and fight that all day. You don't want to replace the axle now because you just spend grippa time on the outer CV boots.

Or you can just spend the $ now, replace both axles, replace the tranny fluid once and be done with it for another 50-80k. Internetautomar has some good prices.

So it's $30 here and there + 5-6 hours of tedious, greasy, messy work in the winter + drain/fill the tranny fluid for some axles that already have 100k miles on them. Or pay $150-ish for two new axles and 1-2 hours max downtime and alot less mess.

 

I dunno how you come up with those amounts. Two new boots ran $64 and I hate to think how much the whole new axles would cost. There is no way I install those el chipo $9.99 boots. Those from Nissan had lasted thru 11 years and I am comfortable with their quality. Those chip ones may break any time.

 

Napa replacement boots (not the 2pc kind) were about $30 each. Which is close to your "two new boots price". Let's say you replaced both boots on both sides. That's $128. Now look at brian's site and price two rebuilt axles.

But if you want to just replace the boots, that's totally fine with me. It's just my opinion.

 

What do you think rebuild means for the axles?

 

I'm going out on a limb here and guess they rebuild them. ie.. put new CV joints on the axles and resell.

 

I think so too. But I could not find any reference to the axles on Brian's site.

 

axles are like $60 ea (core charge not included) and the boots are like $15 ea and those are direct fit ones, not some split uni-fit boot.
if it's early on before the boot splits, I'd personally regrease and reboot all 4 joints rather than do the axle. once the boot has been split for a while replace the whole shaft.

 

All that you guys have said in terms of amount of labour and inner boots of course makes sense, but... my inner boots do not show any signs of wear on them. The outer boots have pretty deep cracks so I judge it is a matter of few months before they burst. But the inner ones look like a baby face. Must have something to do with the different angles that the outer ones have to bend, I guess. Anyway, I'll take a risk and pass on the inner ones until they become a concern.

 

Well I guess I'll throw my 2 pennies in here as well. My car has almost 180000 miles on it. I had the right side cv joint clicking and vibrating. Well, I figured I'll wait a little longer to replace it since I didn't have much extra money. Ended up wearing out the wheel bearing from the vibration which, in turn, caused funny wear on the tire. So at about 2 in the morning on a saturday, lightly misting sitting in gravel, I replaced my right side halfshaft (with cv joints), wheel bearing and put a new tire on. Spent about $200. Need to do the drivers side next in about a month. Boot is torn, but cv not clicking yet. Going to do the struts too. So you can see how the wear of one part can take out others. I'm just glad I got a backup vehicle. Unfortunately, it's a 1977 International cabover. Gets about 5mpg and 1000 miles = 1 gallon of oil. So I'd probably go through the front end if I was you. Good luck.

 

I am with Jeff92se on this one. Personally, I would replace both axles, outer tie rod ends and lower ball joints (if they have not already been replaced) and be done with that portion of the front end for the next 50 to 100K miles. To make matters even better, you can do all of this in around 2 hours. The only drawback with this scenario is the required funds.

You can do the struts and springs at a later time since replacing those does not involve messing with any of the aforementioned items.

 

How many miles do you put on your cars that you wear off parts so quickly? I bough my Max in March 2000 with 54000 Kms on it and put 110000 Kms so far. I was living in 45 Km distance from work for a year and a half and now I live in 15 Km distance for more than year already. My mileage has gone down 3x so I do not expect to put 20000 Kms a year anymore, probably less than 10000 a year.

Over those 5 years it went thru one driver side ball joint which is now up for replacement again. The rear rotors have been changed and one set of pads on all 4 corners. As of today there is still 60-70% of pad material.

Keep in mind, I do not abuse the car. It is not used for street racing but for transporting my family with 2 little kids point A - point B in relaxed manner. So I do not expect any horror stories like above to happen and no, my CV joints do not click or vibrate and their boots have no penetrating cracks, so no exposure to water.

Not sure what the struts and springs have to do with the CV boots... I have a new set of GR2 installed and my springs still hold like new, they are original.

 

Craig is right (as always)... I just did mine about month ago, the axle nut is 36mm. Needed a breaker bar, but it wasn't hard to loosen the nut. Friend of mine was trying to remove the nut off his friend's mustang and he used breaker bar and craftsman 1/2 in socket wrench. They went through 3 wrenches and the guy got a hairline fracture on his... I think it's the bone called the Ulna?? The one that connects outer part of the wrist to the elbow...

 

My younger sister who used to own the car drove with COMPLETELY torn (to shreads) outer CV boots for over a year (in NYC with all that salt and sand). I confiscated the car from her, and by then there was almost no trace of boots (completely exposed outer CV joints).

Seeing that the joints were exposed to elements for so long, I decided that I needed to replace the outer joints. So I decided to drive the car until I heard clicks. After 1.5 years, still no click, but then I replaced them anyway. The joints were OEM that came with the car in '92. Must have been made of "special alloy" (anyone see iRobot?)...