Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 21:23:59 -0700
From: Mike West <mwest@CDSNET.NET>
Subject: C.V. Joints, The doin' of

Sitting around listening to the rains . . . .

Any of you ever think you'd like to live on a mountain by
yourself and let the world go to hell in it's own fashion,
should know that today was "dig out the drainage ditches
day". The knee-hi rubber boots . . big ole' shovel . .  :-)

Gonna do the CV Joints . .  actually, I already have but
for as many as have, I bet there are more who haven't.

I originally thought I had a cracked boot, turns out I
didn't but that's cool. The bug was probably giving me a
"near future" perspective.

 Although the vehicle in this tale is a bug, the vans are mainly
the same only bigger I think. You'll tell me if I'm wrong ?  :-)

 Off to the FLAPS, "new boots and give me one of those CV
joint 12 point socket gee-whizzes".

I mentioned before that I rejected one of the boots he set
on the counter. . . it was lighter and appeared flimsier
than the others.  He sold them to the next guy that came
in the door.

They also sell split boots that don't require pulling a
cv joint, never seen one except in a magazine. . don't
approve of them.

Old cv boots were 2 piece with two clamps to hold them in
place.

The new ones are one piece and are said not to even
require a "pinch clamp" out on the little end around the
axle shaft. A pinch clamp is like a hose clamp. Only different  :-)

I re-used the small clamp anyway.

What I understand is that after some unknown date, they
put a ridge on the axle shaft, that fits just inside the
small end of the boot when installed. If you don't have
said ridge, then you MUST use the small pinch clamp.

Tools: the cv joint socket (12 pt mentioned), a small or narrow screw-
driver to open up the pinch clamps and get down in the socket head
screws to get the crud out, 3/8" ratchet and a short extension,
3/8" breaker bar, 3 cans of brake or carb cleaner, 15 oz., 3 rolls
of paper towels, a coffee can with a few inches of your favorite
cheap solvent, gas is fine with me, a stiff parts brush . . . .
baggies for each cv joint,wire brush, small chisel or drift pin,
this is to knock the Boot shield off the back of the cv bearing
itself, oh yeah. . and two hammers, one small to hit the chisel and
one large to press the bearing off the shaft, and a big honking
vise to put it in while you do that. . couple of boards to protect
the shaft from the vise jaws. A big ole drift pin to knock the
shaft of the cv joint, about 7/8" and about 6" long.

And a pound of cv joint grease (moly filled). I used a can of
Valvoline. The pound can sells for about the same as one of the
little tubes they peddle.

Each little tube is 112 grams I think, you need 90 grams per joint
it says in Bentley but I see the Haynes for a transporter says 70
grams.

A pound is 453 grams so 1/4 is 113 and change. You just put a tad
less than 1/4 the can in each joint/bearing.

This is suddenly looking like one of those jobs you'd rather have
someone else do, even if you have to pay money.

This is also a very important piece of machinery to you. . .
This is one of the four points where the power hits the pavement. .
And the pavement hits back.

Where I have a choice, meaning I also know how to do the job, I just
can't let "Joe Gas-pump" clean, inspect, repack and reinstall my
cv joints.  Ask yourself if you'd let him pack your parachute.  :-)

So it's kind of a personal thing, I don't do "surprises" well any more.

The first move is obviously to get the car up in the air some degree
that makes it easy for you to crawl under there, don't skimp.

I ran mine up on ramps and did most of the work from that position.

Once you have it in the air, get down there and look around, then get
into the paper towels and wipe all the crap that might be anywhere in
the area of the joints when you put them back in. No crap is allowed.

It would be nice to get a pressure cleaner in there but not always one
in your shop. Or there along-side the road.

I had sprayed pernetrating oil all over the joints the day before but
I doubt that it does much good.

Now that you have the immediate areas "spruced up", get that little
screw-driver and dig out the sockets in the socket heads.

Then take one of the spray cans of cleaner (carb/brake) and put the
plastic straw in the nozzle. Put said nozzle right in the socket head
and give it a short blast or two.

Get some in your eyes? I ain't your momma, if you need help in
looking out for yourself, you shouldn't be under there.   :-)

Clean out all the sockets like that and then start breaking them all
loose with the breaker bar and 12 point.

I (laughingly) suggest the breaker bar in lieu of just a ratchet
because they are torqued to at least 25 ft/lbs and thats a little
hard on ratchet teeth. Did you block the wheels?

Switch to the ratchet and pull them all out but a top one on each
end. Back those top ones off till you can turn them on out with
your fingers. Need a container for this hardware. Can or what?

Now you finger out the last two screws while balancing this thing
simultaneously, tugging it out of the slight cup it sits in on
each end. You need three hands but most of us only have two so you
fake it. . . or you don't . . .

Getting it down from there is not the problem, not getting wounded
is the problem.  :-)

It's pretty easy really. .

So now you have one whole axle assembly in your hands.

Lay it down on your work bench or whatever and use the screw-driver
to open up the pinches in the small pinch-clamp.

Pull those two small ones back off the rubber neck there. . .

Now stand the whole assy up on end and while holding the joint
square, use that drift pin/chisel to knock the metal shield
of the boot off the back of the joint/bearing.

You give it a rap and then turn it 90 degrees and give it another
rap, working your way around until it finally falls off there.

As you go along with this, wipe all that grease up you can get at.

Pull that one boot down the shaft to get it clear of the joint.

Some of the cv joints are said to have a ball shaped cup over the
outer end as a cover, if you have one there it says to pry it out.

Mine didn't have one so I was looking right in the joint/bearing.

 The CV Joint/Bearing:
There are four different parts to the thing, an inner ring that is
splined to the axle shaft, the balls, an inner cage that holds the
balls, and an outer ring that has the holes in it that the capscrews
go thru to fasten it to the wheel stub shaft.

Similar to any other ball bearing but this one doesn't rotate around
the shaft, all it does is wobble.
Do not wobble it more than 15 degrees. It will come apart on you.

We still need to get this pup off the shaft . . . .

If you've wiped some of that grease off the end, you'll see a
snap ring there on the end of the shaft holding the cv joint
on . . . . .

Get a regular pair of snap ring pliers and slip it off there.

Here's one of my down points, I immediately flipped the snap
ring off into the brush, never to be seen again.

Naturally none of the flaps had them, and so on . . . .

Once you have the snap ring off, you set the joint up in your
vice or press so that the inner ring that the splines are in,
is supported. Do not try to drive it off there by supporting
on any other part of the bearing, you'll be putting those
hammer blows thru the balls and cage and will damage your
bearing.

Set up so the shaft can slide thru my vise loosely but the teeth
of the vise support the inner ring mentioned above, I pressed
the shaft out of the bearing.

I used the vise and the handle of my floor jack (7/8"drift pin)
and hit it square and solid with my ten pound hammer.

"It", being the shaft, walked right out of the cv joint.

 I had placed a board on the ground below the vise for it to fall on.
If you have a friend to hold it you won't need one.

 There is a spring washer on the shaft under the center section
of the bearing you just drove off. Note the way the spring is
installed. Remove this washer and save.

If you have old cv joints, the spline may be loose enough to
just fall out.

Now you have one cv joint off the shaft and can remove both the
old boots from that end.

Before you pull the boots clear off, take a measurement from the
bearing/joint and the little end of the boot.

You need to put the new ones back to the same location.
That puts the small end of the boot in the proper location
relative to that ridge on the shaft I mentioned earlier.

 It will also place the boot in it's proper place even if your shafts
don't have a ridge.
While I doubt if compressing the boot folds in too close would do much
damage, stretching it out too far could lead to stress and premature
failure. I'm talking about the rubber folds in the bellows here.  :-)

 OK, you got one bearing off and both boots are off. . take a smoke
break. . .  or beer , etc.

 Now take the can of cheap solvent and the parts brush and clean the
bearings of all existing grease and grime.

 Now take a can of the spray cleaner and blow them out to get the last
bits of grease and trash.

 Get a baggy on them NOW . . . . . .

 Inspection: Primarily, when you twist the bearing around the shaft
while holding said shaft, there should be no slop.
 The balls are all round . .  :-) should be no surface defects on the
balls and they should all be shiny bright.
 The balls actually snap into the center ring and hold themselves there on
an unworn bearing/joint.

 Now that the bearings/joints are clean, wipe down the new boots,
rinse if necessary to remove any dirt or dust. . . .

 Put a little bit of lube on the axle shaft and put on the new boots.
One facing the still installed joint and one facing towards the joint
you pulled off. Don't forget to get those pinch clamps in there between
the two boots.
 Leave the boots both back towards the center of the shaft where they
won't get in your way while you grease the joints.

Wipe any grease or dirt off the shaft.
CLEAN is the word from here on out.

 This will seem amusing or annoying depending on your temperment about
here. . . you personally will be in grease up to your tits . .  :-)

 Had a kid worked for me that could do worse than this and never get
dirty above his wrists. . the world took umbrage at that and had him
killed.  . . .

 Put that spring washer back on the shaft, the offset center mates
with the shoulder on the shaft.

 Re-install the one joint you took off, making sure orientation is right.
The reduced end of the bearing is outside, the big end where you should be
able to see the ring of where the boot cap was, goes inside.

 You re-install by gently starting it with the flat of your 10 lb
hammer and hitting it squarely with the face of your hammer till
it is flush with the end of the shaft.

Your shaft end should be sitting on something like a concrete floor
with a 2/4 that the shaft sits on.

Now I used the 46mm socket that would fit over the shaft and
hammered it on home by hitting the back of the socket.

 You are home when you have that snap ring groove flush with the
shoulder of the bearing center section.

Install the snap ring and be damned sure you have it in the groove.
If it's not quite going get on the big socket and hammer again.

 Blow the bearing out again, lightly, and bag it while you round up the
grease and some newspapers to sit this on.

 I will mention two caveats here. In the process of greasing my third
bearing, I tipped the damn bearing too much and it wouldn't go back
together. . . nothing would make it.

I had to dis-assemble that one joint from the shaft again, clean it up
and take it in the house on the table where I could look at the picture in
the "Bentley" manual and orient the bearing just so . . and it fell back
together. I looked in my Haynes to see what it had . . nothing.

 The second caveat is that grinding compound is nothing more than grit
in grease. You got grease and you have dirt and dust.
It's way too easy to make grinding compound while you're greasing these
bearings. This will then eat your bearings as you go down the road.

 Back to the job:  set your axle assy up so a bearing is sitting on the news
paper and one end is straight up in the air.

 Grab three fingers of grease out of the can and press it into the back of
the bearing on the newspaper.  Fill it with grease all the way around.

 Right now you want about 1/3 of the 1/4 can allotted in the back of that
bearing.

 Now grab the outer ring and pull it up and down. "Pumping the bearing".

 It will roll a lot of the grease back up, press it back down and pump
some more.

 Once you get the 1/3 of the grease in that one side you can stop and
turn it over so your greased bearing is in the air and the other side
of the bearing is facing you.

 Use the same method on this side and get 1/3 of 1/4 can in this side.
Pumping and jamming. . :-)

 You will feel the bearing get harder to pump when the grease gets to it.
Keep filling and pumping until you have 1/3 in each side and the bearing is
real hard to pump.

 To re-cover what's going on here, you got a can, 1 pound of
grapite grease and 1/4 of that is to go in each bearing.
What I'm talking about above is that you should use 1/3 of that 1/4 can,or
1/12 of the can in each side up till now. You will still have 1/3 of your
allotment per bearing to put in later.

 Ok, we have packed 1 bearing and there is another on the other end of
this assembly. Leave the boots where they are and bag that bearing you
greased.

 So let's do it all again on the other end. . .  :-)

 Now one assembly is done, do the other the same.
Leave the boots back away from the bearing for now.

 Now get back under the vehicle and clean out the area where the joints sit.

 Wire brush all your hardware and 2 hole doublers. The two hole doublers are
a flat plate that was under the screw head and over the back of the metal
dust shield on the boot.

 It wouldn't kill you to clean those screw heads good and put a light
coat of paint on them.

 Re-installing the Axle assemblies:

 Keep those baggies on till the very last, take your assembly and crawl back
under there for re-install.

 Get two of the bolts to hang this thing in there.

 Pull the baggy for the top end of the assembly and push it up into
place, starting one screw on top by hand.

 Now do the same with the lower end of the assembly. .  almost there!

 OK, both ends are hung by one bolt on the top of the flange and the
boots are still back toward the center.

 Now we get the grease can again. .  .
Repack the grease there on the inside ends of the bearings, the two sides
you can see. Now get a two finger scoop and pack it up in there over the
bearing.  This is that last 1/3 we were talking about applying later. Don't
get carried away but it should be a good heavy
layer that doesn't get into the bellows area.

 Now get cleaned up again and move the boot down to it's installed
position, remember the measurement we took for where the nipple end of
the boot should go? Do that. . .

 Now you need to remove the one bolt you have for hanging and tweek the
boot around until two opposing screws align the boot shield and the
bearing bolt holes.

 Get the doublers and the bolts and do the deed, just hand tight for now.

 On a 25"dia tire these axles turn 1000 rpm at 73mph.

If you noticed, the doublers on each end of the axles were on opposing
patterns in order that their mass would cancel each other.
 If yours isn't that way, don't lay awake nites, just know that it could be
better.

 The Doublers are there to reinforce the back of the dust shield
forming an air tight seal across the back of the bearing.
I might suggest that you put a light coat of grease across the back
of the bearing there where it mates with the shield but you have grease all
over and I expect there is more than enough already.

 I won't mention anti-sieze either, :-)  there was enough of the
moly-d grease in the bearing bolt holes to coat the threads and
should do the same job as anti-sieze in this application.

 These bolts are not run-of-the-mill bolts either.
They are torqued to 25 lb-ft as opposed to 18 for a bolt off the engine.

 I assume they are something like a SAE grade 8 bolt.

 All of which means . . . if you start substituting bolts, stay out of
"Builders Supply".

 I have trouble calling these "bolts", properly they are "capscrews"
until they get to be 1/2" dia.

When you've got everything like it should be and the bolts are started.
Tighten them to just seal the back of the dust shield to the
bearing housing.

Now you get to squeeze the boots . . . :-)

 Grip the boot around the small end and then use your other hand to
apply pressure to the bellows part.
 This presses all that grease you put in over the bearing, that last
1/3, thru the bearing with air pressure.

 Now you can put those pinch-clamps on the small end of the boots if
you're using them.

 Now I tightened all the bolts to just about 10 lb-ft. Just used the
ratchet and feel. Use a criss-cross tightening pattern.

 I had my vehicle up on tire stands till now, now I jacked up the side
I was working on till it just cleared the stand. I need it to turn.

 My torque wrench is too big to get in around the axle except the bottom
three bolts on each end.

 By raising the wheel off the tire stand, I could turn the wheel to get all
the bolts on the bottom for torquing.

 The other reason to have the wheel turning is also important, you want to
spin the wheel and listen to those bearings.
 They should be totally silent.

 When you're sure everything is as it should be, you can finish torquing the
bolts to 25 lb-ft.

 So still you're not done . .  :-)

 Get a can of hand cleaner and get under there again . . .

 Clean all the grease off the boots and surrounding areas . . towels
Now use the hand cleaner and clean all the grease off those rubber boots.
 You know that grease just rots rubber. . .
If you want to be prissy, you can squirt them with your favorite
"Armor-all" type stuff.

 Now you're done . .  go do the other side. . . :-)

 west































C.V. Joints, The doin' of