07V8
Member
A few weeks ago I was climbing around under my truck looking at things and discovered a completely torn inner driver side CV boot. It was torn in two places towards the outer joint.
At first I couldn’t decide if I wanted to purchase a new OEM one or re-boot the original. I knew I did not want anything other than OEM.
I decided to order the boot kit online and make that decision based on the condition of the joint. If I tore it open and found damaged components, I would have ordered another axle assembly.
After reading many of the how-to threads on here and watching some YouTube videos I started the job. The grease in the inner joint was still black and plentiful. All machined surfaces were in pristine condition. Even though the outer boot was not leaking I decided to change it anyway. The Toyota boot kit is awesome, especially with PRE-TENSIONED CV bands. I did end up damaging one and had to re-use the hose clamp on the inner most boot - something which worked fine for 50k before.
Here are a few of my learnings.
- Using a floor jack to support the hub once unbolted from the ball joint was a huge help. I swung it back and up - moving it this way eliminates any tension on the brake line or ABS sensor wire. To do this, you must remove the tie rod end and sway bar connection.
- I used the original axle seal to drive in the new one with a 2lb rubber mallet. It worked well - just have to take your time to seat it evenly.
- Don’t know why people complain about how difficult it is to refill the front diff. I simply squirted the fluid directly into the fill hole from the bottle until it overflowed (even with the front tire already mounted).
- Everyone makes it seem like you need to baby the boots and axle assembly. The boots are far thicker and beefier than one would imagine. You will not damage anything so long as you don’t try and pull the axle apart.
- I used a 24” pry bar on the integrated notches to reinsert the CV into the diff housing. One or two whacks with a 8# sledge hammer was all it needed.
Lastly, I know that people often complain about rust on these trucks. I owned mine in NJ and Chicago for 10 years and over 180k miles before moving to Alaska. Note how all components look new with essentially no rust. A little winter TLC goes a long way.
At first I couldn’t decide if I wanted to purchase a new OEM one or re-boot the original. I knew I did not want anything other than OEM.
I decided to order the boot kit online and make that decision based on the condition of the joint. If I tore it open and found damaged components, I would have ordered another axle assembly.
After reading many of the how-to threads on here and watching some YouTube videos I started the job. The grease in the inner joint was still black and plentiful. All machined surfaces were in pristine condition. Even though the outer boot was not leaking I decided to change it anyway. The Toyota boot kit is awesome, especially with PRE-TENSIONED CV bands. I did end up damaging one and had to re-use the hose clamp on the inner most boot - something which worked fine for 50k before.
Here are a few of my learnings.
- Using a floor jack to support the hub once unbolted from the ball joint was a huge help. I swung it back and up - moving it this way eliminates any tension on the brake line or ABS sensor wire. To do this, you must remove the tie rod end and sway bar connection.
- I used the original axle seal to drive in the new one with a 2lb rubber mallet. It worked well - just have to take your time to seat it evenly.
- Don’t know why people complain about how difficult it is to refill the front diff. I simply squirted the fluid directly into the fill hole from the bottle until it overflowed (even with the front tire already mounted).
- Everyone makes it seem like you need to baby the boots and axle assembly. The boots are far thicker and beefier than one would imagine. You will not damage anything so long as you don’t try and pull the axle apart.
- I used a 24” pry bar on the integrated notches to reinsert the CV into the diff housing. One or two whacks with a 8# sledge hammer was all it needed.
Lastly, I know that people often complain about rust on these trucks. I owned mine in NJ and Chicago for 10 years and over 180k miles before moving to Alaska. Note how all components look new with essentially no rust. A little winter TLC goes a long way.
