Outer cv joint replacement - How to! with pics

[Banana Man 0]

Just changed another cv joint and thought while I was at it I would do a how to for the knowledge base.

 

First off you need to get the tools out for the job

 

You will need:

 

* Trolley jack

* Axle stands

* wheel chock

* Breaker bar ( for undoing hub nut)

* a nice long piece of steel tubing (to put over breaker bar if you cant get enough leverage to undo the nut it's bl**dy tight)

* Torque wrench

* 30mm socket ( for hub nut)

* 13mm socket (for ball joint bolts

* 17mm socket for wheel bolts

* Reversable wrench

* Extension bar for torque wrench

* Extension bar for reversable wrench

* Wooden/rubber mallet (to get the old cv joint off driveshaft)

* Side cutters/pliers (to remove old cv boot cable ties/clips)

* New cv joint ( if new hub nut isn't included you will need a new one of these as well)

* 2 Cable ties or clips for new cv boot

 

 

How to install:

 

1) First off you will need to put the handbrake on tight and put the wheel chock in front of the rear tyre so that the car doesn't move when undoing the hub nut

 

2) Get your breaker bar, 30mm socket, and piece of steel tubing ( if neccesary). Get the socket over the hub nut and attatch the breaker bar so that it is at about 3 o'clock or 90 degrees so that you have a decent amount of leverage, and pull up with all your might ( the hub nut is done upto about 195 lb/ft so its going to be tight) If you dont have enough leverage get the long length of steel tubing over the breaker bar and that should give you enough leverage, at this stage you only want to get the hub nut to move not undo it completely.

 

3) once the hub nut is loosened, loosen the wheel bolts and jack up the side of the car making sure you secure it with axle stands ( we dont want any accidents now do we :roll: ) Once that is done we can now remove the wheel bolts and take the wheel off.

 

 

 

4) Now that the wheel is off, the next step is to undo the hub nut completely. Pick up your reversable ratchet, extension bar and 13mm socket, get your head underneath the hub and you will see the 3 13mm headed bolts that hold the balljoint to the wishbone

,

undo these and hub can be pulled away from it, with a little persuasion the cv joint shaft can be pulled out of hub now and pulled to one side.

 

5} Get your side cutters or pliers and cut the outer clip that holds the cv boot onto the casing of the cv joint and pull the boot back so that you can see the back of the cv joint. Tilt the cv joint so that it's pointing downwards and give the back of the cv joint a few taps with the rubber mallet or wooden mallet untill it will slide off, you will now see 2 washers the first to come off is the thrust washer and then behind it is the concave washer that butts upto the driveshaft flange ( if you haven't bought new ones put to one side and keep safe taking note of which way they came off)

 

6) now you can cut the other old cv boot clip and slide the boot off of the shaft.

 

7) Get your new cv boot and slide it onto the shaft making sure that the small hole end of the boot slides past the ribbed section of the driveshaft. Now you can slide the new or old concave washer and thrust washer back onto the driveshaft in the correct order and slide on the new cv joint.

 

8) Grease up the back of the cv joint and put some in the boot as well so that it is well greased and pull the cv boot onto the new cv joint so that it sits in the groove. You can now get your cable ties or cv clips and tighten them at both ends of the cv boot making sure they are tight as it will throw lots of grease around under your car if it pops of at 70mph :cry:

 

9) You are now ready to put the new cv shaft back into the hub so with one hand grab the drive shaft and with the other grab the suspension shock, pull the shock towards you so that you can move the cv joint behind the hub, line it up and gently push the hub onto the shaft if it doesn't want to go turn the brake disc a little so that the cv joint moves with the brake disc as you are doing this also try and get the balljoint plate to line up with the gap in the wishbone so it can slide back into position.

 

10) Once the balljoint plate is into postion you can now re install the 3 bolts and do them upto 25nm

 

11) get the new hub nut and washer and start to screw it onto the cv shaft at this point just do it up as tight as you can before the driveshaft starts to turn. When that is done put the wheel back on and put the wheel bolts back in and do them up as much as you can.

 

12) Jack the car up so that you can remove the axle stands and lower the car back down to the ground.

 

13) get your torque wrench and 30mm socket and set it to 195lb/ft and tighten till the torque wrench clicks out. Now tighten the wheel bolts up properly ( I usually torque them upto 90 or 100nm)

 

 

14) Now take your car to get the geometry set up as it will be out now.

 

 

Thats it job done!!! :D It took me about half an hour as I have done quite a few cv's in the past but should take around 1 1/2 hours for someone that has never done it before!

 

 

|Hope this helps

[VR6 0]

Looks good - thanks for taking the time to do a write up Ant.

[Banana Man 0]

No probs Tom!

[Neverite 0]

thats another question i wont have to ask you lot :D thanks banana man!

 

Andy.

[Banana Man 0]

:D No worries

[Mr Werthers 0]

Have to agree, an excellent write up Ant.

 

Another thing to mention is instead of removing the three 13mm bolts for the balljoint/wishbone, you can remove the 17mm nut and bolt that 'pinch' the bearing carrier around the top part of the balljoint.Then use a bar to push the balljoint out of the bottom of the bearing carrier.This leaves the balljoint attached to the wishbone. When everything is back together the geometry should be the same as when you started. Saving the cost of having it rechecked.(If it was ok before you started!)

Also take care not to pull the drive shaft out of the inner cv joint whilst knocking the outer one off! This can require complete drive shaft removal to line up inner joint and rebuild, and can be annoying :x

[yalan 0]

Also take care not to pull the drive shaft out of the inner cv joint whilst knocking the outer one off! This can require complete drive shaft removal to line up inner joint and rebuild, and can be annoying :x

 

And also try not to hammer the joint so hard that the whole driveshaft including complete inner cv joint comes out complete.

 

Clearly sometime it is easy....... sometimes it aint! (took me approx 3 hours, blood, sweat and concussion to get the job done - don't ask!)

[billinjah 0]

also you dont have to touch the ball joint as you can undo the driveshaft at the gearbox and it will come out with the wheels turned all the way left or right. saves a geometry check and is quicker imho.