well, on my gray 4WD, I had a wierd noise that sounds like a wheel bearing. Up on jackstands, got out the stethescope, and listened to the hubs while the car was "driving". Seemed pretty quiet, BUT the outer CV boot was ripped about 2/3 of the circumference. I pulled the axle, and decided to take it apart and inspect it even though I'm getting a new one, just to see how bad this actually is (if bad at all). I figured to take some pics along the way, as I've never really seen any, and thought it might be interesting for other people who haven't either.
Here's the axle after taking it out:
Boot is ripped pretty severely. Not sure when that happened.
there's grease inside, but that spot in the middle has me concerned. looks like dirt/grit/something has maybe found a home inside.
I cleaned out the grease with a rag, pushed the boot up the axle, and cleaned the exposed part of the joint.
I made sure the joint was articulated, then tapped on the inner cage to pop it off the end of the axle shaft.
Here you can see it's splined:
here you can see the end of the shaft. it's got one of those circlips, just like the part of the axle that goes into the differential.
here's a look into the outer joint, without the axle shaft in the way:
another shot of the removed joint. You can actually just buy the joint itself and replace it if needed, but it's a PITA sometimes.
started to remove the innards of the joint. Never having done this before, I just started rotating it around and watching what happened:
Basically, you need to rotate the inner AND outer cages to free the ball bearings. i couldn't quite do it by hand, so I used a punch to pry a little bit:
here you can see that the ball is now no longer blocked by the outer shell
Once the first ball came out, the cages rolled around much better, and I was able to remove all the other balls. Here it is with all balls removed. (this photo was taken after the whole thing had been done, for reference)
Once they were out it's pretty specific. The outer cage has two of the six holes that are slightly larger than the others. These two larger holes are very important. First, the inner cage needs to turn 90° to the outer cage, and one of the "teeth" fits into one of the slots of the outer cage, giving enough room to roll the inner cage out.
Once the inner cage is out, you then rotate the outer cage, aligning those two bigger holes with the "teeth" of the shell. then you can lift the outer cage right out:
So, here's everything taken apart:
--sarge
Here's the axle after taking it out:
Boot is ripped pretty severely. Not sure when that happened.
there's grease inside, but that spot in the middle has me concerned. looks like dirt/grit/something has maybe found a home inside.
I cleaned out the grease with a rag, pushed the boot up the axle, and cleaned the exposed part of the joint.
I made sure the joint was articulated, then tapped on the inner cage to pop it off the end of the axle shaft.
Here you can see it's splined:
here you can see the end of the shaft. it's got one of those circlips, just like the part of the axle that goes into the differential.
here's a look into the outer joint, without the axle shaft in the way:
another shot of the removed joint. You can actually just buy the joint itself and replace it if needed, but it's a PITA sometimes.
started to remove the innards of the joint. Never having done this before, I just started rotating it around and watching what happened:
Basically, you need to rotate the inner AND outer cages to free the ball bearings. i couldn't quite do it by hand, so I used a punch to pry a little bit:
here you can see that the ball is now no longer blocked by the outer shell
Once the first ball came out, the cages rolled around much better, and I was able to remove all the other balls. Here it is with all balls removed. (this photo was taken after the whole thing had been done, for reference)
Once they were out it's pretty specific. The outer cage has two of the six holes that are slightly larger than the others. These two larger holes are very important. First, the inner cage needs to turn 90° to the outer cage, and one of the "teeth" fits into one of the slots of the outer cage, giving enough room to roll the inner cage out.
Once the inner cage is out, you then rotate the outer cage, aligning those two bigger holes with the "teeth" of the shell. then you can lift the outer cage right out:
So, here's everything taken apart:
--sarge
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