ECGS BUSHING AND CV BOOT REPLACEMENT HOW TO

Ok guys, first off, i did not get any good pictures as getting my phone out to take them was impossible without going through hundreds of gloves. i know there are writeups on how to remove the cv axle, and ecgs has a good video on installing their bushing. this is just meant to be supplementary information with the boot replacement, specifically. This job is not for the faint of heart, if you dont do much wheeling, an aftermarket axle is the best way to go, time and money both considered. it is not particularily difficult, but time consuming and incredibly messy. any clothes worn will be thrashed, and all tools will require a thorough cleaning afterward.

things to have on hand:

latex or nitrile gloves. (found nice 7mil ones at harbor freight $10 per 50)
needle-nose pliars
flathead screwdrivers
punches, chisels, drifts
tin snips
solvent (brake cleaner in a spray can, or i just use laquer thinner)
tons of towels (i went through a good portion of my big shop-towel box)
19mm socket
lug-wrench (cant remember size, i use 7/8" socket)
pry-bars
snap-ring pliars (unless your good with screwdrivers lol)
boot kit, with grease and clamps
ball-peen hammer
3lb mini-sledge
plastic hammer
ecgs bushing, with tool
crescent wrench
metric allen keys

$30 75w-90 Synthetic Gear Lube - 1 Quart (Pack of 2)

75w-90 gear oil
extra hub dust-cover (if your a hack like me)
and the 35mm socket. i found 1 3/8" to fit well

lets get started. i leave the truck in 4wd, e brake on. jack it up on the driver side front, and place it on a stand. remove the wheel. remove the dust cap from rotor/hub. i used a screwdriver and bent my cover a little to get it started, and then beat all the way around until it popped out. it dented quite easily, and of course i didn't have another on hand, FAIL 1.
remove the cotter pin from the axle, then the funny nut lock thing falls off. with my impact and 1 3/8" socket, the axle nut came off without a fuss. beat the end of the axle into the hub with a soft-faced hammer till you see it move. remove the lower control arm from the lower ball-joint bracket with 19mm. while holding the rotor up and out, the axle should beat through. rest the axle on the lower control arm, and carefully rest the rotor/hub on the lower ball-joint bracket, paying attention to the brake line and abs wiring. this got it out of the way enough for me to work.

congrats, we're almost done right? NO. From the front of the truck, i was able to wedge a prybar between the inner axle stub and differential. BE SURE YOU ARE PRYING AGAINST THE DIFF. AND NOT THE SEAL COVER THAT IS ATTATCHED TO THE INNER AXLE AND MUST GO OUT WITH IT. it is the raw colored metal ring you can see between the inner axle and diff. the front of the truck is the only place i could find to do that safely. with constant pressure on the prybar (36"), a few good wacks on it with the mini sledge popped the axle out. oil will drip from the front diff, hopefully into a pan. set the axle in a nice, clean area with your bucket or pan, towels, and solvent handy.

remove the inner c/v boot clamps. keep them for reference, and somewhere seperate from the outer clamps you will have later. separate the inner axle stub from the boot, over your bucket. shovel as much grease out of the boot and inner stub as you can. now clean the funny looking joint. use solvent so you can mark it for indexing and which side to "start" on the shaft, just in case. now, those three bearings pop off with your plastic hammer. keep them clean and safe. if you did a good cleaning job, you'll see the c-clip holding the tulip to the end of the shaft. i use screwdrivers cause, well, im not a real mechanic. im not worried about where it flys because toyota sent me a new one in the boot kit.

now the tulip can be removed. some sort of puller or a vice would have been very handy for this but, as stated, i dont do this for a living. it took me FOREVER to beat it, with my plastic hammer. i found that my old 54mm 3/4 drive socket (extra points to who knows what it was for originally), with a 3/4 to 1/2 drive adapter, and upside down on the table was a good place to put the axle end while i beat on the tulip. i swear i whacked that thing 1000 times. if you havent cut the inner boot off yet, slide it off, remove your gloves, and grab a beer. time of day doesnt matter as this job requires a few.

remove the outer boot clamps, and set them seperate from the inners you saved. you only really need these if you plan on using factory clamps. they have numbers on them. they are all different sizes, so you need to know which ones went where. over your bucket, slide the boot back, again shoveling as much grease out as you can. i was shy about cleaning the cv joint with sovlent, as the rubber outer seal is on the other side. if your joint is contaminated, have another seal on hand as solvent may wreck it. if yours is still clean, just wipe as much grease out of it as you can, like i did.

while waiting for any solvent to dry, i went back to the front diff to install my new bushing. chase's video at eastcoastgearsupply.com will show it much better than i can explain so ill just touch on it. i quickly found out that my removal tool would not fit between my spider gear (or is that the carrier?) and axle bearing. it would not drop in. so, a little love from my flap wheel (or grinder disk) to taper the ends down a bit was nessesary. i did not have to remove much material at all, and it fit right in; just like the video. after pulling the old one out, hammering the new bushing in was another long job. there is not much swing room with a hammer, and that bushing is TIGHT! I set it flush with the inside of the machined race it rides in. chase says you can hammer it all the way to flush with the outside of that race. no matter what, make sure you dont beat it all the way into the spider gear!!! grab a beer.

back to your axle, get your new boots out, grease, and clamps (if you use them). wrap tape over the inner splined portion (where the tulip was) on the shaft. over a bucket, i used the small pouch of BLACK grease to fill up the c/v joint. wiggle it around to create voids so you can use the entire pouch. now with the shaft horizontal and resting on the bucket, angle the outer end down, slid the boot so it covers the bottom of the joint, and leaves a gap at the top. fill the boot up with your remaining pack of BLACK grease. finish sliding the boot over the joint. try not to loose any grease. i used my factory clamps, and used end nippers to crimp them. seriously. they will be replaced with worm drives as soon as i can find some the correct width.

the inner boot is easier. make sure your small clamp is on the boot, and side it down. beat the tulip on, along with its bearings. now grease it up with the BROWN grease. i used the small pack for the bearings, and filled the inner axle stub with the large pack. slide the stub over the tulip, you may have to wiggle and jiggle a bit then it slides on very easily. clamp the large end. the factory clamp is different here and i was able to do it with needle nose pliars, drawing together the two raised portions that dont actually hold it together. i had to have my wife push the locking portion down once i drew it tight enough. very difficult. should have had the correct worm drives on hand. i just dont know yet where to find some that are narrow enough for the boots. FAIL 2. the small side of the boot i believe clamps in the recessed portion of the shaft. i could not get that clamp very tight. maybe i should have bought the correct tool for the job. FAIL 3.

wipe your axle down, and prepare to reinstall. i inserted the stub, and drove it in with a hammer and chisel, beating on the recessed portion of the stub. the rest is easy. clean your wheel well if you havent already, and especially your brakes when your done. after your tire is on, dont forget to top the front diff off with 75w-90 gear oil.

my bushing is so far a major improvement NO MORE VIBES! boots have held up so far, but i havent put many miles on them. like i said worm drive hose clamps will be added when i can find them. couldn't have done this without tacomaworld and eastcoastgearsupply.com

thanks guys, hope this helps someone

 

I think it going to help me I got to do it very soon my drive side leaking

 

right on. just take your time, and have the right tools or clamps on hand for the boots.

i hear West Marine carrys nice 3/8" wide worm drives that fit nicely. ill be visiting them this week

 

Thank u will do

 

dont try using end nippers for the factory clamps. my outer outside clamp is leaking a tad

 

I wasn't aware this job required any work on the actual axle... Am I confused or were you doing extra stuff beyond just replacing the bushing to correct the vibes?

 

it was a bushing and boot job together. the thread is supposed to be kind of a "how to" on the boot job, and I touched on my troubles with the ecgs bushing; they have a video that shows the rest of that installation

 

I used this thread today when I did my ecgs bushing install, thanks for the write up! that bushing is tight for sure.

 

awesome! did your removal tool work as shipped or did It need some grinding?

 

no it worked fine

 

Thanks for the write up. Just did both of my axles this weekend. The Job went pretty well and I thought I would post a couple pics of the "tullip" on the inboard side of the axle that you have to take apart to change the boots. Also I was able to borrow a giant puller my pops had from who knows what that made getting it off a lot better

These are the bearings that you have to pop off of the tullip:



Here is a picture from above this is where the c-clip needs to be removed before popping it off:



Here is a picture of the puller i used. I tried to beat this thing off with no luck and then a couple smaller pullers but this one worked best. It had a point that fit great into the notch on the top of the axle shaft. Im pretty sure O'rielly and others rent this size puller for just a deposit and once I found it it saved me about an hour and a half of frustration on the second side.



Also I thought I got the pinch type cv boot clamps pretty tight using some tile nippers and a channel lock to squeeze but the my inner on the passenger outboard side popped right of the next day. I ended up spending the 10 bucks on a pair of cv boot clamp pliers from Orielly that allowed me to tighten 2x as much with the axles on the truck as I was able to with the wrong tools but easy access, I should have picked these up first. Especially since a new clamp from toyota is 5.95 so now im out 15 instead of the 10 to buy the right tool up front (I know its not much money but its nice not to have to worry about not getting the clamps as tight as possible after all the other work you've put in).

Here is a link to the pliers I got:

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...lamp+pliers_-1_2601&keyword=boot+clamp+pliers

Anyways hope this post and the pics of the axle apart help someone else who has yet to attempt this job. Very doable just get lots of shop towels I went through two rolls!

 

Well that doesn't look all that bad after all. It seems the important thing is to have the right tools and parts but the actual job is something anyone can tackle.

 

great info jjones! thank you!

and gregman, your right the job doesn't require a ton of skill, but it certainly helps to have a garage full of crap that can at any time turn into that perfectly shaped hammer, or pry-bar, or leverage multiplier.

 

Yes I second this. The biggest thing was creativity with taking apart and re-assembly of the axle. Also a big time saver is the posts that prove the axle can be removed without a full teardown of the front arms, steering rod, ...

This is the first time doing this on my taco but I've done quite a few half shafts and the worst part is figuring out what to disconnect to get enough play to get the axle out, my last one I took the entire spindle off before I found the secret combo!

 

......Seems to me one might be able to do this on the vehicle?

 

huh?

 

The boot replacement, not the bushing. Sorry.
When I was reading this thread I was in boot-replacement mode. Hence my question.
...feeling a little dumb right now, forgetting the point of this thread is more bushing than boot...

 

no your right, its a boot thread, chase at ecgs has a video for the bushing that is much better than my text. as far as I know it is not possible to do a boot swap on vehicle without a split boot kit though. and my logic points me away from split boots

 

Yeah the split boots are more of an emergency duck tape... We threw one on my little brothers tundra just to make it home to do the job right and it did not hold up to highway driving, though it did keep the joint clean.

To slide the new boots on you need to get the axle out of the spindle anyways and at that was the hardest part of removing the axle. I guess you could leave the axle in the diff but popping it out and back in is easy and having the axle out to do the boot tear down is well worth the two minutes it takes to pop it out of the diff, at least it is to me.