CV boot leaking

I recently did the bilstein 3” lift on my truck and I knew it could cause some problems. The grease in my cv boot is leaking out the bottom on both sounds. It doesn’t look like they’ve ever been replaced and they’ve gotten pretty hard. I‘ve look around TW and I’ve seen a lot of people reboot it with oem boots. I also looked into cvj and saw they had the high angle silicone boots. I was wondering which one you guys think would work best. Thanks for any help

 

Personally, I went with OEM boots. I've known guys with CVJ and it seems to be hit-and-miss whether they perform "as well" or "worse" than OEM, even though they should theoretically perform better.

Here's the step-by-step on rebooting, along with parts and tools you'll need. Pretty easy job, and totally worth doing yourself (vs. paying a bunch of $ to CVJ for a remanned CV). The only slightly tricky part is that you need to pick up some additional boot clamps because one of the clamps that comes with the kit requires a different clamping tool which is hard to come by and more expensive than just buying a standard boot clamp.

How-to: Rebooting a Tacoma CV Axle

Parts

• reboot kit (04438-04021)
• a Moog 3401 CV Boot Crimp Clamp Kit (or this kit if the Moog are out of stock)

​

Tools

• Stanley Proto J250G Proto 9-Inch Lock Ring Pliers - this is something I've wanted in the past, but I've never found a pair I'm really happy with. This pair seem very sturdy, and worked great.
• Lisle 30800 CV Boot Clamp Pliers or Knipex Tools 10 99 Ear Clamp Pliers - necessary to tighten the clamps used to secure the rubber boots.

And then, there were tools that I already had around:

• 35mm socket - for the axle nut.
• Wire cutters - for cutting the old boots and clamps.
• Impact wrench (or large breaker bar) - for the axle nut.
• 14mm socket - to separate the lower ball joint (LBJ) from the spindle.
• Torque wrench - to re-torque the LBJ bolts, as well as axle nut.
• Some brake cleaner, to clean up the CV joints and prepare them for new grease.
• A bunch of shop towels to mop up all the axle grease.

 

Alright ill give this a try. I'm gonna try and do the boot slide mod to hopefully make the new boot last longer.

 

Man, I found your article on this a couple weeks back after i noticed that my passenger side inner CV boot had ripped. Your post gave me the confidence to reboot rather than order an aftermarket one! Ordered two rebuild kits from my local dealer for $80 shipped (free shipping over $50 so figured I'd get the second kit for when the drivers side rips). Ordered the exact pliers you mentioned and everything went flawlessly! Those snap ring pliers were the bomb dot com! The ridges kept the ring from flying off like I've had them do in the past, attempting to remove those types of snap rings with your ordinary snap ring pliers Mine was ever so slightly different since I have a second gen, but similar concept and the tools worked perfectly.

I will note, I was able to use the one odd clamp. I dug around in my tool box and was able to make some end cutting pliers work. I'm not sure if these particular ones that I'm linking would do the trick, but as long as the jaws open up enough, i don't see why they wouldnt!

$19 TEKTON 8" End Cutting Pliers | PCT10008, Red

https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-8-Inc...ords=end+cutting+pliers&qid=1592674772&sr=8-5

 

Awesome! Glad all that worked out for you, including that wonky clamp. I originally went and bought a tool at Napa that was supposed to be specifically for that clamp (but it only cost $7, so...) and it ended up destroying the little tabs - it essentially started ripping the metal there. I figured switching over to the ear-style was just easier at that point!

Sounds good man! I've never been a big fan of the boot slide mod - seems like the pressure put on the boot of constantly overextending it might be worse than the rubbing of the fins... but that's probably because I keep my lift around 1.75-2" so I'm easier on my components and sitting closer to the middle of my travel at rest. I'm lucky enough to be able to dial that in, since my coilovers are adjustable. Either way, have fun with the project!

 

Where the clamps are on the shaft is where mine started leaking, but hopefully with boot slide I can make the new ones last a bit longer. Just trying to get the reboot kits now gonna take a week to get those

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much for a week; not much grease is going to leak out in that time. I drove for a 2 week trip on a torn boot, and it was no problem.

 

I'd recommend sticking with oem..never had issues with them..i recently bought rcv performance LT and have been dealing with issues with them tearing/leaking

 

Both of the CV boot clamp kits are sold out. Would these suffice?

$10 FEBRYTOLD 12 Pcs CV Boot Clamp, 6 Pcs Small and 6 Pcs Large Stainless Steel Universal Adjustable Stainless Steel Drive Shaft CV Boot Clamp

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PK9X9V...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

Im not sure if those would work I just got the reboot kit, looks like they should though

Also I got one more question for yall, I just got my cv's all apart and I plan on doing the boot slide mod with oem stuff. The center part of the cv is a pretty beat up and got some surface rust on it. Should I just take a wire brush to it and clean it up a little or just do the mod? Thanks again for all the help.

 

Yup, I’d wire brush it off and primer and paint it if you have the time. Then do the boot slide mod

 

Little update on the boot replacement. I was able to get one side done with the boot slid mod and it seems like it will do the job. for some reason the store sent 3 outers and 1 inner so once I get that in I'll be able to finish the other side. Had some time to clean up the bottom of the truck and getting ready to do the pinch weld mod so I can have a little more room when I get new wheels and tires here in a month or two.