failed CV or U Joint boot

[Pasophisto]

Hi.

1987 3.2 Carrera. Was under the rear with the wheels off to adjust the parking brake and discovered the left side inboard joint boot had split open. I think fairly recently in light of the clean grease everywhere. So do I have to take the half shaft out to slip on a new boot or is there a two-piece or attachable boot that I can get. What's the popular wisdom?

Your help, as always, is much appreciated in providing any advice I'll need to get the job done.

Thanks
Sheldon

[Porboynz]

The easiest way is to get someone else to do it, filthy job IMO. The half shaft needs to come out then you need to use some seriously strong circlip pliers to allow the CV to be removed. Then the old boot comes off and the new boot goes on and so on. There are CV shops that have a special tool that expands a replacement boot right over the CV joint, I stick to Porsche parts. Split boots are definately VW territory.

[Smoove1010]

Sheldon - There may be split boots for this, but I haven't seen them, and I wouldn't go looking for them either. In a way, you got lucky - the inboard joint can be inspected, serviced, and rebooted without removing the axle from the car, but you'll be working underneath for the whole job. It will be awkward and messy.

It's probably a good time to remove the axles altogether and inspect, service, and replace-if-needed. Disassembling, inspecting, and reassembling is a whole lot easier on a workbench, and you'll do a better job. If your boot is broken, it probably allowed water, grit, etc., into the joint, so you'll want to clean the joint out, inspect, and re-grease (if it's not galled or worn out) before putting the new boots on.

The while-your-at-it projects associated with this job include servicing the rear brakes, replacing rear axle bearings, replacing parking brake shoes, rebuilding the rear calipers. Other guys would probably add new bushings to this list.

Search for CV joint and you'll find numerous threads with pics. Good luck!
GK

[ClickClickBoom]

More CV info than one could imagine:
Reconstructing Constant Velocity (CV) Joints

[Pasophisto]

I guess the best thing is to take out the shafts. How long to get them out?

[KTL]

If you can get away with doing the inboard boot only, i'd go that route. But do take some time to look at the other boots. You might find all the other boots are aged & cracking, ready to split. Then you might as well take out the axles and consider new boots or just "new" remanufactured axles as a pair. Taking the axles out is a bit of work. Especially on the cars with the updated axles that have a rather high torque spec for the retaining nut.

Removing the shafts is not hard though. You just need a big socket and a strong breaker bar. 1/2 in. drive socket extension will probably break, so 3/4 in. drive is recommended. The axles in your car have a high torque spec of 340 ft lbs. so keep that in mind.

Upon installation, you'll want to get them tight enough. Should be no problem if you have a long breaker bar and you concentrate your weight accordingly. For instance, I weigh ~170 lbs. so i'd put all my weight on the bar at approx. 2 ft. from the wrenching point to get 340 ft-lbs.

Do some searching on here and you'll find quite a few topics on getting the axles out.

[burgermeister]

I use the HF 1/2" breaker bar to remove the axle nuts - no issues so far, though I wear gloves & safety glasses - it sure looks like the bar is about to snap!

Get a long (20+") 1/2" extension to undo the inner allen (or triple square) bolts from the comfort of next to the car.

I have to undo the shock & lower the trailing arm a bit to get the axle out.

I can r&r an axle shaft in about 90 minutes all inclusive, and I am a retarded left handed monkey - I had a rash of bad GKN boots, and every one of the damn things split in 2 or 3 month increments, so I've had practice.