New Rubber Boots for axles

[Nicad]

My axles seem to be ok. Not sure how you check their wear status, but the rubber boots are showing cracks in a few places. Is changing the Boots something you can do easily without specialized equipment, or do I need a rebuilder to do this?


Tia.

 

[echappe]

did mine last spring, a parts washer helps, no special tools required( jackstands and wrenches) but its a dirty job as the CV joints should be cleaned and and regreased

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Recently done

I just rebuilt my axels and I agree it's pretty straight-forward. You'll need to remove the circle clip and press or knock off the joint. At that time you may inadvertently (or purposely) dismember the joint, but there is a u-tube video that will show you how to re assemble. You can clean them thoroughly and then there is a process where you reverse the inner collar to get some fresh surfaces. I think if you can get them off in 1 piece and flush them out and re-pack you'll save yourself some frustration and about 20 minutes per joint. Also agree that this is a particularly messy job. lots of rubber gloves. The spooge that seems to attach its self to the joints and surrounding parts is really caked on and a parts washer with a good solvent and a brass wire brush works wonders.

It's worth it though!

 

[Nicad]

Thanks Peter and Echappe.

Peter those look great. Are the shiny metal bits just bead blasted? Is there a protective coating on them?

Where did you source the Boots? The ones on Penske look rather expensive.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

New booties

All the parts there were cleaned up by hand- no blasting, I think that would necessitate rebuilding completely if you did. Just give them a soak in mineral spirits, which works in my parts-washer. I just wire brushed everything and I did not coat with anything. As far as prices for the booties, Ben at Bimmerdoc set me up. I can't really speak about the pricing (comparatively) because everything is expensive on these things. I'm really happy with the service from these folks and they are very knowledgeable so I order most of my stuff from them. As a side note, I understand that although the CV joints are hard to come by new, I think they are the same as some of the Porsche 914's, so if you have access to a foreign parts shop you can probably check "world-pack" for pricing and availability with a part number and some patience because not everything cross-references by make and model. One of the cool things about the way I'm doing this restoration is that I'm working on everything at once so if I have to wait for a part I just start working on something else

Hope that helps