As a reminder, if you are not sure WHEN your rear CV joints have been serviced, you might want to put it on your agenda. The boots on my '74 looked very good 'on the car', but I suspected the joints had not been serviced since about 1990 at the very latest. Perhaps not since new in '74. Thus, I felt it was worth doing.
With axles off the car and on close examination, there was a bit of dry rot on the rubber boots, but no cracks. When we opened them up, the grease on two of the four joints was getting pretty hard. The other two were no longer soft and squishy either. Thus, the CV joints were on the verge of possibly wearing significantly over the next 1K miles or so. I'm so glad I decided to do this NOW!
I bought my 4 'kits' from FCP Euro. I think the total cost was around $50, including shipping. The job is not hard, but it is MESSY. Have several sets of good latex gloves and a roll of paper towels close if you do this. I found it is easiest to re-assemble the inner ring, the 6 ball bearings and the outer ring on a bench, then put the assembly back on the splines of the shaft. For the re-assembly part it is much better to have 4 hands to do this job. So, unless you have that capability yourself, you might want to recruit a gearhead buddy to help out.!
Also, consider swapping sides with the axles. That way, the thrust side that was engaged when driving forward will now be engaged when in reverse, and the previously little used 'reverse' engagement is now doing the forward propulsion of the car. I marked the axle part itself with an arrow to the inside, then a '2 L' and '2 R', designating the location for re-installation.
Servicing is messy, but new joints are EXPENSIVE!
With axles off the car and on close examination, there was a bit of dry rot on the rubber boots, but no cracks. When we opened them up, the grease on two of the four joints was getting pretty hard. The other two were no longer soft and squishy either. Thus, the CV joints were on the verge of possibly wearing significantly over the next 1K miles or so. I'm so glad I decided to do this NOW!
I bought my 4 'kits' from FCP Euro. I think the total cost was around $50, including shipping. The job is not hard, but it is MESSY. Have several sets of good latex gloves and a roll of paper towels close if you do this. I found it is easiest to re-assemble the inner ring, the 6 ball bearings and the outer ring on a bench, then put the assembly back on the splines of the shaft. For the re-assembly part it is much better to have 4 hands to do this job. So, unless you have that capability yourself, you might want to recruit a gearhead buddy to help out.!
Also, consider swapping sides with the axles. That way, the thrust side that was engaged when driving forward will now be engaged when in reverse, and the previously little used 'reverse' engagement is now doing the forward propulsion of the car. I marked the axle part itself with an arrow to the inside, then a '2 L' and '2 R', designating the location for re-installation.
Servicing is messy, but new joints are EXPENSIVE!
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