Lessons learned - front CV axles, seals, tools

[alia176]

The purpose of this thread is to let everyone know the lessons I learned from doing the front CV axles, seals and the tools I found to be most effective.

CV boot saga:

I started out with the premise that I can simply swap out the old boots with new OEM boots. However, I feel that the shafts on my vehicle are aftermarket because the boots did NOT fit. I bet OEM boot kit works well with OEM axles, as others have attested to. The outer boot fits PERFECTLY but the inner boot does not. Look at the pic below, see how the inner boot is not round and the grease is still oozing out?







Diff axle seals:

I bought a set of Timken seals and installed them. The FSM shows how far to install the driver side but I wasn't able to find any info for the pass side. My first attempt resulted in the seals leaking gear oil.

The driver side diff seal has to go in just flush with the outer. Here's a pic of where the seal lives. You need to tap it in squarely but first, put some grease on the back side of the seal where the spring is. This helps keep the seal from popping out while you're tap in the seal into the housing.



The passenger side seal is a different story since it lives in the axle tube. Take a close look at the picture and you can see how the axle tube is dirty for the first 1/4" or so, then it becomes shiny. The seal needs to sit in this shiny area, as close to outboard as possible.

Before I learned about the above points about the correct locations, I blamed the Timken seals themselves. I always use Timken seals and was beginning to doubt the seals so I purchased OEM seals from the local dealership. Well, you know what? The seals are IDENTICAL, right down to the par number etched on the seal themselves. Only the last digit is different!



The part number is BH53201 for OEM, BH5320F for Timken.





Conclusion: Timken and OEM seals are good for this application, just be sure to install it correctly!!

To be continue since I've reached my pic uploading capacity.

 

[alia176]

Seal tool

For tapping in the seals, I used couple of old bearing races I had lying around.







CV Axle observations

For this project, I purchased an Autozone Reman and an OEM boot kit for the second axle. The Reman axle leaked with both the Timken and OEM diff seals. I falsely blamed the Timken and bought an OEM but they both performed identically. Turned out that the seal riding surface on the axle shaft was probably lathed down a little too much. Even though both seals fit snugly on the shaft, gear oil still managed to leak out.

Pulling out the axle can be challenging depending on what you have on hand. I tried using two pry bars to push out the axle but that didn't work. What worked well for me was using a slide hammer with a hook tool. I attached hook on the inner CV joint housing using a hose clamp. Then sat outside of the vehicle, screwed in the slide hammer and pounded out the axle. You needn't go crazy here, just one or two good solid whacks and the axle will come out of the diff.





Conclusion:

Just buy the brand new CV axle vs saving $20 and buying a reman unit. I think it'll be a hit or miss with the reman unit. I now have two brand new NAPA axles and they're sealing up just fine.

CV boot clamp

The boot clamps that came with the OEM kit (and probably all other kits) worked great and I used an "end nipper" to pinch the CV boot clamp. Mine looks like this one 10 In. Heavy Duty End Nipper



Note:

The boots in the OEM kit are very heavy duty. As compared to the Autozone re-man axle CV boots, the OEM outer boots are stiffer. NAPA sells two varieties of CV axles: one with "standard" neoprene outer boot, the other one is their "heavy duty" thermoplastic outer boot. The OEM boot kit feels similar to the NAPA HD thermoplastic boot. The inner boot on the NAPA axle (standard or HD) is still the softer neoprene boot. I think the extra $$ for the thermoplastic outer boot is worth the money. Autozone doesn't offer the HD outer boot option, only neoprene softer outer boots.

 

[alia176]

Reserved ..

 

[ranaesx4]

hmm nice idea with slide hammer, I just ordered one since if I have a leak after putting new seals in I may want to remove my new axle without damaging it.......I was able to start it out with a pry bar and then pulled it out by hand shaking it while pulling, but prybar bent dust cover and pulling by hand sux.....thnx for tha info on seal seating, I thought my original was in deeper than flush due to my removal process, but I guess that's just wwhere its supposed to live...

 

[danronian]

Great info!


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