Marty916

Thanks to everyone for responding to my CV boot replacement question. It is possible to replace the trans side (inner) boot with the axle shaft on the car. It's messy as hell but possible if you can lift the rear end high enough to create enough work space. I ended up removing the axle assembly anyway as I found a small tear in the outer cv boot as well and it was much easier to remove the old outer boot on the bench. Fortunately the cv boots are identical for both inner and outer cv joints as I only had 2 boot kits that I assumed were specific to the inners only. If you plan to do this I would recommend buying 4 kits just in case you have unexpected surprises as I did. Better to have and not need. Removing and reinstalling the axle nut is a challenge if you don't have the correct equipment (340 ft/lbs ... ) Thanks again for the pointers!

Peter Zimmermann

...and don't forget, always replace the large stub axle nut if it's the self-locking type (the castle nut that uses a cotter pin can be re-used).

imcarthur

How did you get it loose & tight enough, again?

I have an outie to do.

Ian

Peter Zimmermann

Ian: I'm pretty sure that your car has the self-locking nut. 3/4" drive tools are best. A Craftsman 1/2" breaker bar has a good chance of breaking, a SnapOn bar might not. In any case you'll need a length (four feet or so works well) of thick-wall pipe that'll fit over your breaker bar. To tighten you need to borrow/rent/buy a very expensive, large torque wrench... a 3/4" drive socket is safer than a 1/2" drive socket with an adapter to put it on a 3/4" drive torque wrench (the 1/2" to 3/4" adapter can break). This is one of those it's-all-about-tools jobs, as Marty said. If you can talk a nearby shop into breaking the old nut loose you can drive the car home, do the job, put your new nut on with an impact wrench and drive the car to the shop for them to torque the nut to spec.

imcarthur

Yeah. I have the 1/2" tools. Breaker bar & torque up to 250 ftlbs. And I have snapped some adaptors on other things. Or I could just fight with the b*stard under the car. I did an inner that way.

Ian