1st Gen Lifted CV Axle Help

I've got a 2004 2.7L extra cab w/Camburg uniball UCA's and toytec coilovers turned up to about a 3" lift. Once I installed the Camburg UCA's to improve my travel the inner boot on the driver side ripped open and pissed grease everywhere... I've read the threads on replacing/extending the boot; but I'm pretty sure that I'm pushing my luck as these are the original CV's (196K miles) and the UCA's added about an additional 3 inches of travel. Does anyone know of any high angle cv's out there? I know this information is somewhere on here but I can't find it; redirects are welcome. I have the factory length LCA's so Tundra axles won't work... and I don't wanna spend $2000 on the rcv performance axles. Thanks, and just to make it more interesting I'll send my old CV's (which are working fine) to whoever refers me to a source I end up using. Just pay the shipping and they're yours.

 

The only thing you can really do is get silicone boots/do the boot slide mod (pushes boot further down axle shaft so the ribs rub less)

 

so there are no cv's out there that are designed to work with a lift except for the rcv performance ones?

 

Nope not that I've seen. I personally am running toytec boss coilovers/TC UCAs with 3" up front and am running CVJ remanufactured OEM CV axles w/ silicone boots. Haven't had a problem or vibes or anything. I do have a diff drop though but it didn't do anything noticeable.

 

yeah, I have the diff drop too. maybe i'll just do the boots and hope for the best; what do you recommend for a boot that wont tear at high angle?

 

Hi, I too am running a very similar setup to you guys. Toytec Boss, Camburg uniball UCA's etc. I had the same problem and also went with CVJ Reman axles. I had them do the silicone boots. I had one tear shortly after and had it replaced, however they did their version of a boot slide mod on the replacement. I also talked to Kevin? Kenny? can't remember, and i agreed that lowering the front 1/2 inch was going to help. So I did.

Talk to them about clamping the boots further down the axle if you order replacements. I have a diff drop too and not sure if that is helping at all but at least its there. No further issues as of yet. Lower the front a bit and watch for the reduced angle on the axles. You'll need another alignment though. I have a lifetime alignment from Firestone here due to the amount of work I do on my truck. A wise investment. I can adjust my fronts all I want for free.

 

There are high angle boots out there but really, I'd just go with what they offer and lower the truck 1/2 inch or so. It's just too much angle for the boots. My rear OME springs settled a bit and the front was measuring higher than the front. I think a 2-2.5 inch lift is fine for me. At 196k on the OEM axles replacements aren't a horrible idea.

Side note: I did an FJ spring swap and 5100's on my buddy's 06 4Runner for a total of 1.5". I looked at his front axles and they went from angling UP slightly to the hub to a near perfect 90 degrees into the hub assembly. Zero angle for the boots. If only..

 

I'd lower it back down to 2.5"
If ya got a pee-runner you might get away with 2.75" - 3"
^ tho' alignment may suffer if still utilizing the factory UCA's

regarding a 4X... the factory engineered geometry has limitations.
and the CV angles are a primary concern in that limitation.

Diff drops are a waste of money and time.
tilting the diff does little to improve cv angle
and will likely increase wear of other components.

hammer/cut/tub the wheel wells to fit those taller tires...
raising the engineered ride height beyond it's articulation limitations
is not advantageous... and is simply more abusive to your junk.

Not to mention...
excessive lift will make yer junk ride like a brick

 

When did it become junk?

 

Lowering the truck is not likely to help me because it's still going to articulate waaaay down when I flex it because of the camburg ucas, that's what ended up killing my boot; I had no problems before that, even with the lift.

 

Just playing devils advocate, no flame intended.

1: It's 30 bucks and installs in minutes.
2: Even a little improvement is helpful especially at $30.
3: Lifting your truck increases wear but we still do it. Which leads me back to number two.

So how is a even a little improvement not worth 30 bucks and 30 minutes of time? It stands to reason that by simply lowering the diff 1" will do no more harm than raising the truck 3". Ask my LBJ's, UBJ's, UCA's, and my brake lines how they liked the lift. But lift it I did. As well as added a diff drop.

Back to the OP...

If you are worried about droop tearing your boots maybe a short limiting strap could be of use?

 

"Diff drops are a waste of money and time.
tilting the diff does little to improve cv angle
and will likely increase wear of other components."

I don't think theyre a waste of money... If your CV angles are a little excessive the diff drop will certainly help that problem. Most kits dont tilt the diff, only lower it. The u joint is the only thing that will change (increased angle) a little increased wear possibly. But we all do that to the rear anyway when we lift, so I see no problem with that. Heck some of us really tweak the rear u joint angles and often dont use angled blocks or wedges, more often than not its a non issue. I don't understand your diff drop statements being "a waste of money"

 

Hate to go against Dell but I agree with the Diff drop comments. I got a kit from Sonoran steel that has the correct angled cuts on the spacers to account for the rotation in diff geometry. The kit seems to have alleviated a lot of previous problems for me. I also did the boot slide mod and try to spray the boots with silicone every now and then to keep them conditioned. I've replaced the boots on my CVs twice and the last time I replaced I did the BS mod and adddd the diff drop for good measure. I've had zero issues for two years and 20-30k miles. As far as the diff drop causing more wear on components, the only real issue is with the front driveshaft angle, which rarely is an issue at all since you're only in 4wd a fraction of the time you're in 2hi and in that situation the front DS isn't even spinning.

 

Pictures might help here. OP: You're saying that the tear happened while your were crawling your truck off road... and the CV boot rubbed on something?

Everyone else here is "fixing" the classic CV boot fins touch each other an fail because of over-the-road driving.

I've never heard of a CV boot tearing because of too much droop, so I'm curious what your boots look like. Also, if the boot tore while wheeling a high angle CV boot isn't going to help at all... neither will the diff drop.

Also, I'm running my original CVs with almost 250k on my truck and I still wheel on them hard. You can probably reboot and be fine.

 

I think I attached a pic

 

That looks like a boot tear from extended rubbing while driving. More than likely you need to lower the lift or add a diff drop.

 

I have the diff drop, the boots are less than 1 year old.

 

It looks like the typical boot tear from the fins rubbing each other to me as well. I'd just reboot them with the high angle boots and do the boot slide as well. Maybe between those two measures, you'll get the fins to keep from touching.

Like everyone else said, you can always lower your rig until to keep the fins from touching as well.

 

Just a note on the fins touching, if they do touch they do just that. There is no "rubbing" going on when they do touch, because there is no rotational difference between any part of the boot as it rotates 360 degrees even when bent. All parts rotate at the same speed or rpm. So when/if the boot makes conntact they "touch" like putting your fingertips together. I suppose there would still be friction but nothing as abrasive as rubbing, which would indicate two things going in different speeds and or directions.

Now there would be some "bending" going on in the valleys of the ribs (like a paperclip opening and closing or bending back and forth) because of the changes in angle of the boot as it rotates. This would only go away with a 100% linear rotation ie no change in the angle of the joint from a perfect 180 degrees. This is why we should worry about the CV angle. That and the stress under load of the joint itself at severe angles.

Thoughts?

 

^You're absolutely right. I just use the "touching" point as a reference for how much bending they'll see during a rotation. As for boot slide, my theory is that the absolute angle is reduced (even though the relative angle stays the same) and the boots seem to last longer.

Good point.