CV Joint help? Remove bearings.

m5bb

m5bb

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So I have the half shafts out of the car to replace all the boots and check them for wear.

I got the snap ring off (not easy) and want to take them apart.
How do you get the race's and the ball bearings out?
Or at least the ball bearings. The race's may not come out.

And like others have said, what a dirty job. Yuck!:mad:

Thanks,
Gary
 
Last time I went into cv joints, once the snap ring is off you can thunk the joint with a block of wood to drive it off the splines.

The joint may appear to be all of a piece but if you clean then play with it just the right way, the balls can be taken out. I don't think you should take the balls out, just get nice and clean, then slip the boot on, then the CV joint, snap ring, grease, and back on she goes.

A good set of snap ring pliers both inside and outside, belong in your toolbox. Disposable nitrile gloves are very handy for these filthy jobs too.
 
Thanks for the info, I have already done all that you say.

I want to see those ball bearings to see what condition this joint is in?
After all they are 41 years old.
Getting the grease out it taking some time.

Gary
 
Soak in gas or solvent and blow out with air.
Only use cv grease- ep grease comes in squeezable packs.
Many will say that bearings must be replaced
in order because wear patterns. I would never remove them.
 
Whenever I take apart rear axles I first identify each as left or right and indicate the direction of rotation on them. Remove the endplates, cut away the boots, and soak each end in a can of solvent. Inspect each joint for wear and cracks, remove one from the axel with a hydraulic press, put two boots onto the axle stub facing outward towards both ends, reassemble with a hydraulic press, grease them up, seal the boots, and get ready to reinstall.

As the outboard joint goes through a more hectic life than the differential end, I remount them by either switching left to right or by switching the direction of rotation so that a relatively fresher surface will take the thrust.

Or, I just use 4 new lobro cv joint kits and recycle the expired cv joints.
 
I needed to use a puller on mine. They were absolutely not coming off the shaft by banging on them. Used dry ice to put them back on the shaft and they just slide in.
 
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CV joint grease

Be sure to use synthetic or semi-synthetic molybdenum CV joint grease in the cv joints. In my 41 years of packing Lobro cv joints on BMWs (a 72 tii w/420,000 km and a 74 tii, 78 635csi, and a 71 2800cs) and a Subaru powered VW Vanagon w/500,000 km), I've found that joints that were showing significant wear and pitting with conventional molybdenum CV joint grease would run for tens of thousands of miles more with semi-synthetic CV joint grease such as Valvoline Durablend. In fact, these joints looked better after running with Durablend for 100,000 miles than they did when they were regreased. I feel this is superior to the stuff that comes in the boot kits.

I will not use anything else.

Sparky
 
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