FYI CV Boot Replacement

Had a small puncture to my cv boot while up in the big bear snow. I’ve seen the cv boot expanders and thought it would make quick work of the job, wrong. I bought the expanding tool pictures below and a Tacoma cv boot. The tool itself works fine. HOWEVER the Tacoma cv boots smaller hole will not stretch to the diameter of the larger hole to fit over the cv axle. I used 150psi to open the boot but it was still 1/2” to narrow. I applied a small amount of heat to see if it would stretch the extra amount but the boot just ended up tearing. It could possibly work if you pulled the whole axle out and tried to expand it over the inner cv and then slide it to the outer. But I ended up just separating the cv joint to properly install it.

 

Me, I would wait until the issue caused a problem and replace the whole shebang. My $.02. But you already have a bunch of money invested in the tool.

 

Lol, are you saying you’d replace the whole axle because of a cv boot? The problem is that it’s flinging cv grease everywhere. Waiting for my cv joint to fail while I’m out and about and being stuck somewhere is not option I’m okay with. I already completed the job without that tool. I also returned tool. The cv boot I tore only cost me 20 bucks so that’s not a big loss. My real loss was my time lol. Had the tool worked it woulda been less then a hour to do.