Replacing a CV boot

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01-12-2019, 07:34 AM

Slamrod

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Replacing a CV boot

I noticed that my passenger side axle is slinging grease all inside of my wheel yesterday while i was replacing balljoints, tierods, etc. It is the joint closest to the hub, the boot is not cracked but there is a hairlines gap under the larger end of the boot where the clamp/band is that is allowing grease to escape. Luckily in my case it appears the grease is still escaping and contamination has not gotten inside yet - this must have happened in the last hundred miles or two at the very most so its still a fairly new development. I went ahead and got a boot kit off of rockauto that appears to have everything i need (boot, clamps, big bag o’ grease)

Anyways, can anyone give me a lowdown on how exactly the boot comes off and gets replaced? Theres tons of threads on this but they all devolve into a dozen people suggesting to just replace the axle, which was probably great advice in 2008 but not really helpful at all today with aftermark axle options being so poor quality. I did find a link to this writeup on a sentra forum:
https://www.sr20-forum.com/general-m...axle-boot.html

Does this seem like a fairly accurate writeup in terms of the axle layout? I figure the design of nissans axles cant be that different across the board. If so - i noticed that the guy leaves the axle in the transmission, and hammers out the outer cv joint from the axle shaft. Is this simple as it looks, ie; it simply pops off with a bit of force? Or is there more to it than that? Id prefer to not remove the entire axle as i dont wanna muck around with gear oil but if doing so makes the job drastically easier ill just suck it up and do it.

Also, assuming i remove that joint, is it always necessary to fully clean it before reinstalling, or is it possible to just add grease if there was minimal/no contamination getting under the old boot? What kind of chemical would be best for dealing with that much grease? Or do you guys think i should just wipe off as much old grease as possible and not use chemicals at all? If anyone has dealt with this job before id be very grateful. Any recommendations on how to go about this would be much appreciated, im looking to do this soon so i dont have to worry about the joint itself getting damaged and needing to replace or rebuild the axle itself.

Last edited by Slamrod; 01-12-2019 at 07:40 AM.

01-12-2019, 01:33 PM

Child_uv_KoRn

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Search it on youtube, but your link is good for the process, but it needs to be removed. Basically, you have to put it in a vice and beat it off over the snap ring, then it's cake. Buy the boot kit with grease, but if the outer is in really nice shape, then you could just regrease and clamp it down harder. Sooner or later the inner boot (sooner lol), it's gonna rip wide open if original boot. I think I paid 12 bucks/each on ebay for the name brand.

bunch of edits, hungry and tired

Last edited by Child_uv_KoRn; 01-12-2019 at 01:47 PM.

01-12-2019, 07:23 PM

DougR

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Slamrod

… Also, assuming i remove that joint, is it always necessary to fully clean it before reinstalling, or is it possible to just add grease if there was minimal/no contamination getting under the old boot? What kind of chemical would be best for dealing with that much grease? Or do you guys think i should just wipe off as much old grease as possible and not use chemicals at all? If anyone has dealt with this job before id be very grateful. Any recommendations on how to go about this would be much appreciated, im looking to do this soon so i dont have to worry about the joint itself getting damaged and needing to replace or rebuild the axle itself.

At 165,000 miles, I had a torn outer boot. I replaced inner and outer boots on one side, outer boot only on the other side. The inner boot was dry and stiff. I intended to replace both inner boots, but I had too much difficulty trying to remove one of the CV shafts. I replaced both outer boots even though only one was torn. I held the outer joint in tension using all thread rod and brackets and then tapped it with a hammer. I think I also used a screwdriver to squeeze down the snap ring at various points. Tension on the CV joint held the snap ring to a smaller diameter, allowing me to use less brute force with a hammer to get it apart. I don't have pictures and no longer have the device I used to put tension on the joint. I've been fortunate to always discover a torn boot before the joint makes noise or the grease becomes contaminated. Under these conditions, I simply wipe off as much grease as I can with the joints apart. I never used a cleaner. I work new lube into the bearings as best I can, pack most of the lube into the CV cover and put on the clamps. It's a very messy job. I never had a joint fail afterwards.

Last edited by DougR; 01-12-2019 at 09:05 PM.

01-30-2019, 12:22 PM

CRBWS6

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See post #17 here for a ghetto CV boot fix, that actually holds up surprising well.

01-30-2019, 06:28 PM

Slamrod

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Quote:

Originally Posted by CRBWS6

See post #17 here for a ghetto CV boot fix, that actually holds up surprising well.

I remember seeing that when you first posted it lol, if it works then who cares how ghetto it is. Unfortunately for me (or maybe fortunately, idk), the leak is coming from under one of the metal bands that holds the boot on. The boot itself is perfectly fine in the sense that it does not have any cracks, however for whatever reason grease is able to escape out from under one of the bands and get flung all over the place in my wheel well. I suppose I could simply just replace the band, however Im going to play it safe and just regrease and reboot it, because its an OEM axle and I dont want to have it get worn out.