CV Axle Question

[AKAndy]

So I went wheeling on Sunday, and while I was on the trail, just after passing through a fairly rough rocky section with lots of articulation, I noticed that the boots on both CV axles were spewing clean grease. It appeared that they had just started doing it judging by how clean the grease was. 4WD was still working fine while I was on the trail, I'm not hearing any bad noises yet. I'm going to have my mechanic take a look at it on Friday (I think this is beyond the scope of my mechanical abilities), but I'm wondering if anyone who has been through this before can tell me if this usually means that the axles have to be completely replaced, or is it possible that just the boots can be replaced? Also, how hard of a job is this? I figure that since I plan on doing more and more wheeling, CV axles are probably something I should learn how to do, as it seems to be a common thing that people break.

Andy

 

[Mauzer]

If you recently put the lift on the grease spewing is normal, just re grease and zip tie the boot . If you see a tear in the boot you can either replace the boot or replace the CV, its easy and only take around 30 minutes per side. I would recommend replacing them and keeping your current ones as trail backups, do it yourself cause its something you NEED to know how to do.

 

[Elton H]

replacing the cv joints is a super easy job take the wheel off pop the black cap off undo the big nut and the 4 lower bj bolts then pry at the other end

 

[nquaint]

I wouldn't go to the extreme of replacing the CVs yet. Just get under the car and take a good look at the inner and outer boots on both sides, if there are no rips I'd just get some metal band hose clamps and put them on to reinforce the seals, use a strip of cloth or something inbetween the boot and the clamp so the metal doesn't cut into the boot, and wrench them down nice and tight. I'm guessing you recently put a lift in so the CV shafts are at a new sharper angle which creates a gap for grease to get out. I had to do the same thing a day after I put my lift in. Both sides were spitting grease out and since then the hose clamps have kept them sealed, (almost two years now)

 

[brian2sun]

BTW, I let my CVs spew most of the grease out after my 1st lift. Then I hose clamped them. Then the boots tore and I duct taped them and drove an entire winter like that using 4x4 at least 75% of the time. They probably would have lasted several more months because they never did make any noise but I replaced them anyways so I could forget about them. Point is, they probably won't break for a long time.

 

[Pikeman]

I drove for 8 months on broken boots with no grease in them and plenty of wheeling and they are still fine. If you dont let your wheels hop and then get traction all the sudden then you shouldnt have to worry about breaking them. But yes you really do need to keep them maintained.

 

[AKAndy]

Thanks to everyone for the advice... I actually don't have a lift (yet), guess I just pushed the stock setup to the limit on Sunday. I'll see how badly the boots are damaged, and see if I can clamp them down to keep the grease in before getting them replaced.