CV Boots replaced! I can see why people say not to do them.
 

God, what an awful job. I did both outers. This is a terribly dirty job; if you think brakes are dirty, they're not!

Getting the axles out is relatively straight forward. Taking the shafts out of the joints took me a long while (I lack a vice and it took me a bit to figure out a good way to do it). Getting them in (axles in joints after repacking) took just as long (damn metal clips).

Cleaning them is...@#($ing messy. One and a half rolls of paper towels, several pairs of the nitril gloves.

I had the good fortune of denting the end of one of the CV joints (where it hooks into the wheel) and spent more than an hour grinding the end down with a dremel so that the axle nut would fit back on the outer threads.

People said not to do it, but nooo, I had to try. Well I've tried, and never again. If you're reading this I implore you to listen when people recommend not to do joints. Pay the little extra money for new/reman axles and enjoy the rest of your day. You'll save tons of time and plenty of frustration.

Oh and I gashed my finger quite nicely too :)

The best is that the left cv joint, which had a boot about to go (but was fine) now makes a very dull thud when I take a hard left and straighten out quickly, so I'll need to do the axle in the future anyway :D Still though, $40 for both boots is not bad.

fun stuff huh? definetly not worth it in the long run.

I rather just change the entire axle.

I know the Haynes manual even tells you to just replace the whole axle instead of replacing the joints because it's easier to do.

:) I actually made good use of the hayne's cv joint replacement instructions. I guess they give the info for people who like to hurt themselves.

or if you're like me, you tear boots every 6 months, and the parts stores have stopped accepting warranty returns on axles that have to be special ordered and take 3 weeks to come in. (stupid nissan.. why the hell did they make this car so damn rare?!?!?! :mad: )

so now I just have the local parts store keep a small stock of boots on hand. Since I do so many for my car and others, they don't care. but Nissan only made about 26 different axles for the 3rd gen- At $125 each, that's a lot of stock! the boots are all the same, so it's easy to stock 2 sizes of boots (inner and outer) at $12 each.

as long as the axles are in good shape, I just rebuild mine to save the hassle of watiing weeks for the wrong ones to show up.. grab a boot, 1 hour of grease, and it's back together. I don't even pull them out of the tranny anymore.. just remove the inner boot, slide the axle out, rebuild it, shove it back in. takes 20-30 min per side.


for the once-every-5-years people, then yes it makes sense to replace the whole axle. usually they're worn pretty bad anyway and need replacing.

$48.48 per axle at my Napa :)

Jeeze, if mine tore that often I'd nail down a good routine too! Is it hard to get the inner joint apart and put back together while on the car? With the outer I know you definitely need some space to take it apart and put it back together.

No, you don't take the outer apart...
pull the outer end out of the wheel hub assembly...
cut the bands on the boot for the inner, then slide the boot back. use a small screwdriver to remove the metal ring clip inside, then just pull the axle out, leaving the inner section still in the tranny.
take the outer 2/3 of it to your workbench. remove the rest of the inner joint. slide both boots off the inside end. clean and repack the grease on the outer end. install new boot f/ inside end. you never take that one apart.
slide new inner boot onto the axle, then clean and reinstall the inner CV section...
go to the car, scoop out the old grease still inside the inner joint. clean w/ universal low-cost parts solvent (gasoline ;) ), wipe dry, then pack the new grease in there. stuff rebuilt axle back into stub. insert metal clip to hold it in place. slide boot over inner joint and clamp bands down. stick outer joint back into wheel hub, and bolt wheel hub back down.

done. :)

:rofl: I have done a lot dirtier jobs. It's amazing how dirty a vehicle can get when all it does is drive on a flightline. I might be able to come up with a few pics as well.

And I don't even want to mention how some of the construction equipment looks like. :faint:

Everyday I look down and notice new cuts and bruises. Mechanic work is a dirty and possible dangerous job... depending upon your field.

When I had the CV boots replaced on my 92, the dealer bought the boots from Carquest. Those boots were much thicker than Nissan's OEM boots. They were around $15 back then.

I just got an oil change on Saturday and the dealership wrote "Minor leakage on both outer CV boots".. they told me that in 10,000 miles (I have 86,000 miles now), I have to change it ($200 something each). I can't believe it's so expensive. What does a CV boot do and do any of you have pictures?

The CV boot keeps the grease in the CV joint and keeps dirt and water out. I don't know what to say about the leakage except to look at the boots and make sure there are no tears/splits in them. If they have any sign of that, it's time to replace them. I hope that price is for replacement axles and not replacing just the boots.

damn im replacing both axles this week hopefully the axles are easier that just the boot as deezo says