Itinerant Air-Cooled

While doing my regular maintenance I stumbled upon a tear in my driver side cv boot closest to the tire. The grease has splattered over part of the shock and I'm afraid to drive it.

So, does this call for just a new boot with repacking the grease? Or do I need to replace the whole CV joint along with a new boot?

I dont' have any experience with CVs so any helpful advice is greatly appreciate. From my initial readings, this looks to be a greasy job.

-dave

You can pack it with grease, but you really need to replace that boot. It's not hard, just messsssssy.

dhoch14 wrote:So, does this call for just a new boot with repacking the grease? Or do I need to replace the whole CV joint along with a new boot?

Haven't had the pleasure myself yet but my understanding is that, provided the joint/bearings don't show pitting or heat stress, you're looking at a new boot, not the whole joint. Either way, you're looking at a boat load of grease!

Suit up!

Hiya Dave,

One things for sure...............the longer you let that boot go the more likely you'll wind having to replace that CV joint.

Pulling the halfshafts, inspecting the CVs, greasing them, installing new boots, and doing the reinstall is not a difficult job. Just very messy. Incredibly messy. Burn your work clothes messy. But not hard.

Pack it with grease, tie plastic around it and do your best to seal it up. Fix it when you can, ie not 5 years from now. Like hammy said it's not really hard, just a messy job.

Colin has a write up somewhere about switching the CVs end to end so that you have a fresh surface to wear on...

Awesome. Thanks guys. I've parked the bus until I can get this taken care of. Hopefully, I can enjoy some nice grease in my hair this weekend.

FWIW - Colin politely called out this CV in his visit this summer. I should have listened and sealed the boot prior to it tearing. Oh well!

half way done and holy crap this is a dirty job. seriously, I was not expecting this much grease. wow.

quick question, can I reuse the circlip? the non-tear side joint is getting a repacking as well though I'm not sure if I can just buy the circlip locally.

a-thank-you.

-dave

I threw away my clothes afterward.
The circlip should be OK, I'd reuse it myself unless deformed.

dhoch14 wrote:half way done and holy crap this is a dirty job. seriously, I was not expecting this much grease. wow.

quick question, can I reuse the circlip? the non-tear side joint is getting a repacking as well though I'm not sure if I can just buy the circlip locally.

a-thank-you.

-dave

Call Mike Whathisname on the Discovery Channel. I will give him a dirty job in short order. We'll do CV disassembly then crankcase cleaning, and move directly to rust eradication.
Colin

done and done. I finished up on Sunday and overall the project is pretty easy. I had some issues with grease in my hair, but that's about it. I ended up cleaning and repacking both joints and replacing the boot.

Back on the road and ready for a beach camping trip this weekend!

dhoch14 wrote:done and done. I finished up on Sunday and overall the project is pretty easy. I had some issues with grease in my hair, but that's about it. I ended up cleaning and repacking both joints and replacing the boot.

Back on the road and ready for a beach camping trip this weekend!

SwaEEEET!

Now you wanna do mine?

How hard was it replacing the boot? I now see I have a torn one. Too many stupid camps. Are they split on the small end to fit over the CV, or must the joint be pressed out of the shaft?
Never ending project.

hambone wrote:How hard was it replacing the boot? I now see I have a torn one. Too many stupid camps. Are they split on the small end to fit over the CV, or must the joint be pressed out of the shaft?
Never ending project.

The new boots that BobD told me he wanted to install as "pre-emptive maintenance" have failed in a big way all of a sudden. The boot separated from the CV cap completely within the span of 50 miles. His originals, which I asked to have, were installed in the Road Warrior and gave me no trouble in 70,000 miles on top of the 34,000 they already had. These new ones lasted less than 8,000 miles. Lobro even. So today, in the cold sunshine in some parking lot out of the wind somewhere, I shall enjoy a CV repack, Itinerant style.
Colin

Remove all of that stuff, clean and repack joint.

Slide the new boot on the shaft.

Then put the joint back on.

Here are a couple of good raps on doing it....

http://type2.com/bartnik/cvjoints.htm

http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_1 ... nence.html