Busy doing left inner CV boot




Any bright ideas to get this circlip off? I can't get my circlip pliers into that small gap.

They do make and sell circlip removal and insertion pliers. I've seen them at many tool stores.

You can also carefully use a large enough flathead screwdriver that can be inserted and twisted to spread the ends of the clip then a 2nd screwdriver is used to pry the clip away from the axle while the ends are apart.

Not sure you want to take that one off. It's been a while since I did my CV's but I pulled the whole axle out and rotated the joint till I could get the balls out.

Then I removed the snap ring on the other side of the one in the pic. Put a new boot one... And put it all back together again.

Basicly at least one of the joints has to come apart to get the boot on. Might be able to do it in place if you take the outer apart.


Its been four years but thats what I remember.

Kevin

Silly me. That circlip keeps it from going deeper not coming out.

Can I give a quick yank to just get the shaft out? or is the snap ring behind too strong for that?

I would prefer not to remove the balls from the cage.

Yes, there's a ring clip at the end of the splines that expands into a circular groove to hold it in place. A good quick tug will free it.

Frank

Thanks

Now, do you mean the shaft out of the joint or the axle shaft out of the diff? A quick yank will get the axle shaft out of the diff, but not the shaft out of the inner CV joint (unlike the outer CV joint). Like Kevin said, you must remove the balls from the joint, pull the cage out and you will find a cir-clip (snap-ring) on the other side of the cage. Remove the snap-ring to remove the cage and then install the new boot. As I'm sure you know, everything must be cleaned and then reassembled with liberal amounts of grease.

Are you replacing the outer CV boot too? May as well while you've got the knuckle off. I used a drift to knock the outer joint off the shaft. I found getting the c-clip to go back in the outer joint during reassembly a real pain. A dead blow hammer whack to the end of the outer shaft worked though. Recently I saw a someone use a small hose clamp to compress the c-clip while pushing the outer joint on to the shaft, like a piston ring compressor. Neat idea.

I hate doing CV joints. Messy business <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />

i'm lazy to type. pictures only <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Ack! Sorry, I totally forgot about the large spring steel ring holding the inner joint together. Good job for working that out <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

P.S. I wouldn't use a zip-tie to hold the boot on for too long. Been here, done that <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

zip ties have worked on my other car for years, but I need to get the heavy duty ones. these ones are lightweight.