Tom W

I took my car in for its annual PCA tech inspection today and discovered that the boot cover on my left rear CV joint is torn.

I'm about to pull the wheel and hub to change the brake calipers and rotors and wonder if this is an easy DIY repair. Is it written up anywhere? How big a PITA is it?

I tried a search, but the damn search engine chokes on CV and tells me there are not enough words in the search string ...

WMRiceman

Hi Tom,
I changed all of mine out and it’s not all that hard. The replacement boot kit sold from Burmos is Lobro. Vertex sells this same kit for $20 per boot. I’d recommend changing all 4 while you’re at it. Special tool needed is the boot band crimpers (Special pliers). You can get them from NAPA. If you want to be exact, the big nut at the axle is torqued close to 350. Believe it’s 347 but I don’t have my book with me. I’m at sea in the Persian Gulf right now (Navy). It’s a messy job, cleaning the old grease out and repacking with new (supplied with kit). Total cost was maybe $90 not including the 100-750 ft lbs torque wrench I bought off ebay for $75. Only advice is clean the allen heads really good and use an allen head socket. Inspect the joint that has the torn boot closely and if you have signs of wear from grit go ahead and replace the axle, ($175 to $200). Set the parking brake, loosen the lowest allen, release parking brake and spin axle to the next, you’ll see what I mean when you get under there. My references were the Bentley book and the Factory Manuals.

This is one I’d do again if I have to. Been almost a year and the new boots are doing fine though. Best of all I got to justify getting a really cool torque wrench, 5 feet tall with a 1” head. Best of luck with it. mark

Tom W

WM, thanks for the input. I went through Adrian's book and the 964 refecence book last night and couldn't find anything on replacement. When looking for new boots on Performance Products catalog (the web) I saw that I would need the special pliers.

How long did it take to do? Is it an hour or two or something longer. I'm debating doing it when I replace the rear brake calipers and rotors.

WMRiceman

Tom, I spent the weekend doing the job but I guess you could do it in a day. First day I took everything apart, inspected and cleaned. Let it dry over night, then packed the grease and put the boots on and back together it went. Vertex has the exact same kit that Brumos was selling for $68 for $19. Lobro. Not sure of the Performance Products brand. The Bentley book doesn’t have a step by step procedure like the Factory Manual but gives the Torque settings. I’m telling you it’s messy. One of the CV joints is going to come all the way apart (Transmission Side) and the other one you take the boot off and clean it with it together. I used mineral spirits but any degreaser should work. Just make sure you get it all out. That is why I let mine dry over night. Compressed air works nice too.

The axle nut is on there. I used a 600 ft lbs air gun to get it off. You could put it back on with the air gun or use the torque wrench. Just hard to find a torque wrench that goes to 347 ft lbs. The Bentley manual and the factory manuals differ in the torque for the allens. Not by much though, think it was only around 6 or so ft lbs. Either should work fine. I used a high temp anti-seize on all threads. If you had a helper in the car as you take the allens off that would help. I had to get out from under the car each time to release the parking brake and rotate the axle till the next allen was accessible. Each kit comes with plenty of grease, I used it all. Just packed it in there. Mine has been working fine now for over a year, I inspect the boots every time I change the oil and no problems. Good luck with it, Mark

tyler

screw the parking break method, just shove a screwdriver in the disc vent and wedge it against the caliper...keeps you from having to get out from under the car.

see if you can rent a lift for this as well

to do one side should take about an hour....cv boot replacement only

Jeff Curtis

It is a VERY messy job, have some latex/nitrile gloves on hand and LOTS of shop rags/paper towels to go along with it.

I had to perform this duty at my first PCA race, 1327 miles away from home...it sucked, plain and simple. I had issues with the same axle the year before as it fell off shortly after my weekend at Mid-America Motorplex.

The bolts had worked loose during the weekend and when I went to take my Nephew out to lunch the next day, I pulled away from an ATM and BLUMP!

A year later found me rebuilding the whole unit at the same track as I found a blown CV boot while changing out my brake pads. Again, a MESSY-MESSY job.

I have addressed the issue with what I hope to be a lasting fix, just last night I replaced the whole unit with a NEW one available through Performance Products (I had a gift certificate to burn).

I don't like that you cannot disassemble the outboard CV joint to clean/relube, you can only do your best to clean it up and glob some move grease in there, the inner unit is like any other pre-964 911, you pull it apart by releasing the snap ring that holds it together and everything comes apart as any other CV joint.

I will certainly keep the old unit as a spare, just to ward off the EVIL "CV Demons" while on my cross-country trip this Summer. After all, it has two new boots and is nice a re-packed with grease.

As for the outer nut that holds the axle in the trailing arm housing, here's a nifty hint for you...go to Autozone, Pep-Boys, whatever, and purchase their $10 32MM 1/2" drive socket and use an impact to get it off with no hassles.

...otherwise, call a muscleman over to get that sucker off.

Tom W

Guys, I think that given the limited time I have over the next month to get this done, I'm going to let the shop have the fun. Thanks for the input, next time I'll probably try it myself.

Jeff Curtis

WUSSY!

In case you didn't notice, those are "winkey-winks" there Tom.

I understand, sometimes I wish I would just write a check and get some much needed issues resolved, but I just can't bring myself to do it!

Tom W

Jeff: Ha, I know what you mean. I've just been too busy at work to have time to play with the car (I have a new GT3R steering wheel waiting to be installed, brake cooling kit waiting for installed, brakes and an oil cooler on order that need to be installed and new seats that need to be adjusted before going to the track). The few weekends I'm going to have before the first track date will be stolen by my wife "dragging" me to Hawaii. I'm pretty damn lucky to have such problems.