Busted CV boot on factory shaft

Just change it all. Saves a huge amount of time. If you really want to keep your original, just give the parts store the $25. The parts store units are not that much weaker.

Or don't change it at all. I lost a boot at the 26,ooo mile mark. I was gonna change it when it the joint finally broke. I was still driving the truck at the 300,ooo mile mark. The joint never broke.

I don't get worked up over bad CV boots/joints.

It is good that you are checking over your truck on a regular basis. Not a lot of people do this.

 

Yea, I have done numerous Polaris ranger CV joints "always a mess" and I just finished doing upper/LBJ, w/energy suspension control arm bushings/steering rack bushings, and 5100's with new coils as well as a new radiator/grill guard. Took me a little while to get it all done but I am glad I saved a dime and did them myself. I will probably replace it with a napa shaft and replace the boot for a spare.

 

More talk about Napa being inferior, but again no evidence to sustain these claims.

What is my time worth? Well it's worth more than doing all the labor to reboot an axle. Rebooting an axle costs me about 3 hours of my time if not more if I run into problems.

Lots of cussing, messing with those stupid snap rings under the tripod joint, lots of brake cleaner to try to clean gunk off so my snap ring pliers stop slipping off of said stupid snap rings, cutting old boot for boot slide mod and putting that on after installing the new one, repacking with grease, installing new band clamps...BEVELED SIDE OUT OR IN???!?..... fuck that.

I can have an entire CV axle assembly swapped in under an hour.

All I need are a breaker bar, a pry bar and a couple of sockets and a torque wrench.
To do a boot swap I need all of the above plus brake cleaner, grease, GOOD quality snap ring pliers (read: $$$), a dremel or other cutting tool to cut old boots off, band clamps(and TOOL), shop towels, a padded room and a straight jacket.

 

Do that. Get a new lifetime one, keep the OEM one as a trail spare. Don't even reboot the bitch.

Only reason I went with the 3 year warranty reman one that had the core charge was because I royally fucked my last boot change, needle bearings were everywhere. Was not going to even bother with that mess. Went to Napa, got a reman one, and was finished in 30 minutes. That was 2 years ago. No "boot slide mod" on the NAPA unit, either. Boot is fine after nearly 40k miles.

I was blowing OEM boots about every 2-3 years even WITH the boot slide mod. Boot always kept busting near the middle and not where the "fins shouldn't rub"... just like in TacoSauce's pic.

 

I agree. I went with an entire new cv axle from Napa. I replaced the one torn and bought another one in case the other one tears. I do plan on rebuilding my oem ones but so far the Napa one is holding up just fine. I do a bit of traveling and (at the moment) little to no off roading. It's a hell of a lot of lot easier to replace your cv axles then rebuild them. Also, as soon as I replace the other one. I will have two oem spares rebuilt on the shelf.

 

True that

 

You forgot the whisky.

 

Amen. So total cost of each:

Swap entire axle:
$100 or so for axle
1 hour of time.

Reboot CV:
Boot kit $30
Snap ring pliers $35
Brake cleaner $5
Band clamp tool $10
Shop towels $5
Whiskey $30-$60 (probably best to splurge for a handle)
Mental health care facility for 30 days, uninsured (after wife or gf discovers you covered up to your elbows in grease, stomping around, throwing things and yelling at inanimate objects)
$5,000

 

Just want to add, if you're running the amount of torque through your drivelive to snap cv joints you sure as shit won't want to have a stong enough axle to transmit that torque to something else. By using "inferior" joints your have control over where the failure will occur in those dangerous situations. In short, if your axles are indestructible you will be replacing differentials instead. That's how I've always thought about it anyway.

 

I haven't busted any axles, cv axles or solid axles, due to excess torque. I have busted them though due to breaking traction and then getting traction. Also, the weakest position for a cv axle to be in is at full turn. This is why the higher quality axle is recommended with the taco. Not usually due to a too much torque type of problem.

 

There's pictures out there of OEM Yota cv axles comparing them to the 'new' aftermarket cv axles. The difference without the boots on them is easily noticeable.

Maybe in high power applications it could make sense to run lifetime warranted axles. Especially if you know you're breaking OEM axles constantly. (I'd still think 'operator error' can cause most of breaking, at least it did in my case).

 

I'd say run OEM in high power apps if your diff can take it. If you're constantly swapping CVs just because of the boots tearing and you aren't crawling every weekend or whatever then just go with Napa.

I've had a friend of mine (I know, anecdotal evidence) with 35s on his DC and broke the spiders before he broke the CVs.. so yeah. I'd rather go "weaker" in that scenario for sure.

 

This is why I will never run a front locker on an IFS rig.

 

From my experience operator error/over extension of the CV joint causes 90% of all joint failures.

 

So you think when your cv joint goes from spinning to stopped it's not a torque that's breaking it? Where does that 'not' - torque go when the cv axle doesn't break?

You should get out of the habit of using gas when you're at a high degree of turn.. but I can't argue that having more strength in that area is a good thing, I would rather adjust my driving style.

I'll mention in my '88 pickup using a front ez locker I never broke and single axle but managed to sheer 3 teeth off my RG.