So your boot is torn, or you need to overhaul the CV joint, or you just
like taking it apart. No problem! I just did one. It's easy to do.
The whole unit taps off the splines of the driveshaft. There is a
spring clip on the splined shaft on the end of the main driveshaft that
retains the entire CV joint. Just tap a bit solidly to get it to
release, and then it just taps off gently.
You can also disassemble it on the shaft, and take the center cage unit
off last (that's what I did in learning).
To do the teardown, either on or off the shaft, here's the steps.
Tap the outer ring clamp off the CV can. It just taps down. At that
point ,the boot can be peeled back, and you can admire the joint in all
its naked glory.
Notice the aluminum wire ring around the inner surface of the outer can.
If you slide the joint up and down, you'll notice that this ring is
what is holding it together. Pry the ring off with a screwdriver. Now
you can slip the outer can off.
Next comes the balls and the intermediary cage. The balls will pop out
with just a slight pry. Remove all six, and then you can rotate the
cage and lift it off the shaft.
At this point, you've got the inner CV race and the boot still on the
shaft.
Look at the inner race and you will see where it ends, right by the
boot. Tap here and you can tap the unit right off the splines of the
driveshaft. You can then slip the boot off.
Walla! It's completely disassembled!
I've not found a source of cages, but the balls are standard 0.656 CV
joint balls. Replace if necessary.
For a replacement boot, I used the inboard boot of a 1982 Toyota Tercel
(DuraBoot #535-3). 1980-1988 are all the same btw. It worked. The fit
was a bit looser then I liked though. Next time, I would use the inner
boot of a l90-91 Geo Prizm, 88-90 Toyota Camry, or 88-92 Toyota Corolla
(all the same, DuraBoot 537-3A). This boot is slightly smaller, and
would fit a bit better.
I couldn't use the clamp that came with the boot, mostly because I can
almost never successfully make those thing work, but also because the
clamp was a bit small. So I used hose clamps. The small end was no
problem, but the large end was a bit looser then I liked on the can. It
took a few moments of arguing with the clamp and the grease and such to
get it all to go together in a manner that seemed likely to actually
stay on the can. There would be less of a problem with the slightly
smaller boot I mentioned.
Put it on the car and test it out. Being curious about how the
hoseclamps would work, I redlined the engine in 4th gear O/D. At about
110mph the long edge of the hoseclamp fanned out enough to tap against
the driveshaft tunnel. This wouldn't be a problem with a shorter
hoseclamp, and isn't a problem any more with the end cut off my long one.
The only problem I've encountered is that the hose clamp worm screw is
rather tall, and is therefore somewhat close to the transmission tunnel.
As the engine and transmission squirm on their soft rubber mounts, I
can sometimes get the hoseclamp to tap against the tunnel shell. This
is mostly on hard left turns.
So there you have it, overhauling your own CV joint with no special
tools and an off the shelf readily available CV joint boot.
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