12 replies to this topic

[callumgordon]

Hi everyone:),
Im about to fit new CV boots on my drive shafts and was wondering will the new boot just slide over the end if I heat it up first or do I need to remove the bearing(if thats what it is) on the end of the drive shaft first. If I do need to remove the bearing first will it just tap off and tap back on again after I fit the new boot?.
Im fairly new to this mini game and learning along the way while im at college:)
Thanks.

Attached Files

•  image.jpg   52.66K   29 downloads

[tiger99]

Firstly, you should not have seperated the drive shafts that way. The bit on the end is the inner member of the inboard pot joint, and you can now never reassemble it exactly as it was, with the balls in their original slots. You must never, ever mix balls from one pot to another as the size varies slightly to take up manufacturing tolerances, and the actual joints themselves were made by at least two companies to different internal dimensions.

 

Before you do anything else, get a Haynes manual, and read it, several times.

 

As you may now need new pot joints too, you can just knock them off, with a couple of hard blows from a brass faced hammer, but save the balls, each with its own inner member, just in case they are fit for re-use. The balls will fly out if you try hammering. The pot joints are also going to need new rubber boots, as I can only see one tattered remnant.

 

The official way of doing it is to extract the shaft from the pot joint, leaving the complete pot joint in the diff, using a Rover tool, shown in Haynes. You then put the shaft in the vice, and with the boot removed, apply a hard impact with the brass hammer to the inner member of the CV to remove it.

 

If you do it the official way you don't have the impossible problem of threading the complete shaft through a hole in the subframe, or putting the pot joints together in filthy conditions (dirt will ruin them quickly) under the car.

 

Without the tool for extracting the shafts from the pots, a viable alternative (too late now in your case) is to remove the hub, leaving the shaft in the car, and while holding the shaft into the pot, pushing it in towards the diff, whack the CV with the hammer to get it off.

[jackx998]

You have to remove the bearings to fit the new boots, remove the ball bearings themselves which can be done by tapping the cage and then grab yourself a rubber mallet, either hold on to the shaft as tight as you can or stick it in a vice and give the cv joint a good whack, it does take a good few to make it come free of the circlip.

Edit: tiger beat me to it, much better, he knows what he's talking about.

Edited by jackx998, 25 May 2013 - 08:38 AM.

[callumgordon]

Hi,
Thanks guys, I had to remove the pot joint from the diff as its a restoration project and all the engine and gearbox has been rebuilt

[pierres]

Get the stretch cv boots that go over a cone much easier that way

[Captain Mainwaring]

Get the stretch cv boots that go over a cone much easier that way

 

Agree - and I quite lubricating them too.

[Dan]

Thanks guys, I had to remove the pot joint from the diff as its a restoration project and all the engine and gearbox has been rebuilt

 

  But you haven't removed the pot joints, you have broken them in half.  That's the point.

[sonikk4]

I'm with Dan and Tiger on this one replace the pot joints now especially if everything else is getting rebuilt so not worth messing around. You should have split the CV joint itself to replace the gaiter.

 

Also there should only be a spring clip and not a circlip that retains the CV joint on the drive shaft. If the CV joint gaiters have split at all i would recommend replacing the CV joints as well. CV joints are notorious for failing with the slightest amount of contamination gets into them from a damaged gaiter.

 

None of this is what you want to hear but believe me after rebuilding everything else and then either a CV joint or a pot joint fails then what a waste.

This is a seriously knackered pot joint

[tiger99]

Well, that beats any that I have ever seen, or even imagined! It looks as if it had a split boot for some considerable time, and probably the wrong grease too, unless the car tried to go swimming in salt water?

 

I expect that getting the pot joint inner off the shaft may have been "slightly difficult"?

[Dan]

  I've had one that was fairly similar, but not so extreme.  It looks like there is about 15 degrees of slop between the grooves and balls!  It's easy to get them off when they are so far gone you don't care about the parts.  You just prise off the end cap and pull the circlip out of the groove directly.  Then it just needs driving through.

[sonikk4]

That came off Project Erm and we were led to believe the car was nearly ready for an MOT. Blind Pew could have seen that was shot as the gaiter was in pieces but that summed up the whole car. It actually fell apart with the tiniest of taps. The other side was better but still shot.

 

Not an issue any more.  

[Dan]

  I don't think the inner joints are an MOT item believe it or not, so this would just have been an advisory.

[sonikk4]

  I don't think the inner joints are an MOT item believe it or not, so this would just have been an advisory.

 

I think the damaged gaiters would have been Dan but don't quote me on that. They were in tatters to say the least.