Dennis Wilson

Recently bought a used rear axle off EBay. When cleaning it I noticed a bulge in the boot mount. It appears that a piece of a previously broken joint was left in the boot. The mounted joint looks new with very little or no tracking wear. The only scenario I can think of is that the disintigrated cv joint was replaced without cleaning/replacing the boot. Any other ideas on how this could happen?

Dennis

Garth S

.... use of the standard dismantlers tools from the swiss watch repair kit - a 3' pry bar and a BFH.

dfroelicher

could have been cause for original cv failure

Dennis Wilson

Thanks. Guess I need to check for wear or cracking on the opposite joint if the BFH was used while still on the car. BTW removing that circlip has made me want to go the BFH route in the past, but I've always replaced the boot.

Dennis

SharkSkin

That does seem to be laziness. The boots are supposed to be cleaned out 100% when the joint is replaced, so you don't get grease with minute particles of the old joint into the new joint. That particle is definitely a bit less "minute" than anything I'd leave in there...

Imo000

I never clean out the old boots, insted just replace them with a new one. I don't get the logic of installing a new CV joint and then cheaping out and reusing the old boot. It's like changin the engine oil and insted of installing a new filter you just wash it out with some gasoline.

SharkSkin

Well yeah -- cleaned out or replaced. I installed one used halfshaft, boots were fine so I left them. One halfshaft I put new joints and boots on. The point I meant to make is, if you're putting old boots back on they've got to be clean.

Maybe one reason they re-used it is that's actually a 911 flange. I don't think you'll find a boot with a 928 number on it that will fit -- BTDT. Maybe the PO or mechanic made a couple stabs at getting the right boot and gave up after a few tries.... Still should have cleaned the old one out though. Or at least pulled out the big chunks.

The part that I ended up using was 901.332.293.12, YMMV.

Gretch

Hi Dennis, Yes it looks like some crap left in the boot......I changed out a CV and for the life of me could not get the circlip out, then had an expperienced wrench show me the crow bar and BFH trick.....I gotta admit, I was not impressed with the techniqiue, but he told me it is the "standard way" of doing this.......

Still not impressed. Only upside was that the CV was on my ATV and not one of my cars. I agree with the "replace the boot" method BTW, gives the opportunity to load new grease and know for certain there are no dirt and corrosives left behind................ The stuff that gets in to a split boot will eat up a CV joint in very little time.