CV joint issue - in a pinch

[AustinZ]

Hey guys,

Long story short, I have a car that is sitting up at my brothers house with a bad CV joint and my brother is moving next week. I need to bring the car back down to my house where I can actually work on it.

Its a 1980 Vanagon, there is a "clicking" sound coming from the rear left wheel. I checked it out the other day, the the outer left cv joint boot is spitting a bit of grease.

I do not currently have the tools available to pull the old CV joint and replace it.

My question is this:

Is it possible to peel back the boot, pack it with grease as much as possible, drive it about 2 hours back home where I can do the actual replacement. Or do I need a tow..

My concern, having never done this before, is that I wont be able to get any grease into the actual CV joint itself, and packing just the boot wont really do me any good if the joint is dry.

Any thoughts?

[47silver]

Highway driving will destroy it. Rental trailers are inexpensive to haul a vehicle. Cheaper than the destruction caused by a joint that siezes or falls apart

[AustinZ]

Shiza..

Thanks for the reply, sounds like Im towning >.<

[db_cooper]

Most Vanagon CV joints do not have a metal band on the small end of the CV boot. Yours might have one, originally they were designed to be unsecured.

If so, try opening the small end of the offending CV boot and inject some grease in there.

If there is a clamp or band on the small end..remove it and get some grease in there.

Load it up with grease and take it for a test drive.

Many Vanagon owners got home with a noisy CV using this technique.