How To: Replace/Rebuild torn CV boot and/or Axle

Thanks! I guess I'll go ahead and order the axle. My only concern is messing up the seal.

 

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Gotcha. Seal is only available from the dealer, right?

Just make sure that you take the axle nut off, while the axle is in the air with no wheel mounted. Otherwise, internal wheel bearing damage will occur. Easiest way is to have someone stand on the brake pedal while you undo the nut. Then undo the brake components and pull the axle out of the hub.

Just make sure that you take the axle nut off, while the axle is in the air with no wheel mounted. Otherwise, internal wheel bearing damage can occur. Easiest way is to have someone stand on the brake pedal while you undo the nut. Then undo the brake components and pull the axle out of the hub.

 

 

Fixed for you. Yes, it can happen. Not a guarantee that it will. I have had to remove and install the nut through the open wheel hub when working in drive ways with no assistance. Performed successfully many, many, many times without damage. However, I did damage 1, once. The bearing itself was not damaged, but the internal ABS pick up that is embeedded in the bearing was. On a A/T car, this causes pure havoc.

Thanks - thought I had put "may" - appreciate the fix. The races are plastic in the HBA, so weight transfer on the loose bearings, especially on a high-mileage HBA can impact/deform the races and then it's all downhill from there.

 

I borked one on mine from hanging a (~50 lbs) wheel/tire combo on it before tightening the axle nut. It was then I read the cautionary comment in the FSM not to do that, or loosen/tighten it on the ground with the vehicle weight on it.

I dont recommend it. But I do understand the situations where it must be done. We do not perform the swaps that way at the shop. Damage can occur and if Mr. Murphy has anything to say about it, damage will occur. Wheel bearing assemblies in an LGT are not cheap either.

Sorry for the delay. I had no problem doing the outer boot with the axle still installed in the transmission. I removed the axle nut and unfastened the control arm via the strut mount bolts. The process for booting is the same as the inner CV joint. I might have used a rubber mallet in the process, I don't recall. It was very straightforward.

 

My advice is, if you don't know the full history of your axles, get the Duralast and have it on hand before you start the job. Return it if you don't need it.

 

Did this job today. Replaced both front lower ball joints at the same time, and was surprised how much tighter and more precise the front end feels now. The old ones didn't seem worn out, just had torn boots (see below regarding dealership) and 130k miles on them.

 

I was uncertain of the procedure for the outer, so I picked up the Duralast reman ahead of time in case I ran into problems I couldn't solve. Saved my bacon.

 

Once I got the axle out and the joint apart, and took the shaft over to the parts washer to get it nice and clean, I realized there was no snap ring where there clearly should have been one. I looked in the parts washer, and there was half of it. On the splines of the axle, you could see where the ring had been out of position when the joint was pressed on and, rather than sliding inside the CV hub, it was sheared into two pieces. The other piece was presumably covered in grease and is probably just somewhere inside the boot. I'm assuming this was done by the Subaru dealership that replaced the outer boot before I bought the car and damaged it in the process, causing me to have to do this job. I am not taking it back there to have them fix it. They screwed up everything they touched - this was just the farthest-in part I've seen.

 

Realizing this situation, and not having a snap ring on hand, I switched to the Duralast axle. The sheet metal guards for the hub bearing and tranny seal were not present on the reman, so I switched them over. Found a large bearing puller and tapped them off, then tapped them back on the reman axle very carefully with a copper hammer and a brass drift.

 

I had access to a lift. I got everything apart normally, and even pried the axle away from the tranny so the snap ring was out of its groove, but the larger portion wasn't past the oil seal. I then lowered the car so I could remove the other three arms of the lift and lifted it back up under just one corner. Unorthodox use of a lift, but not much different than floor jacking it. Turned the steering a little as the car angled and the low side moved toward the lift arm. I put a jack stand under the lift arm just in case.

 

Worked perfectly. Not a drop of tranny fluid came out. I made sure I had a super-clean glove finger and dabbed a bit of tranny fluid on the parts of the inboard CV that would be inside the tranny, especially the oil seal surface, before inserting it. Once the reman axle was in the tranny, I lowered the car to get the other arms back under it and lifted it to normal working height to finish the job.

 

Used a very large pry bar between two studs to hold the hub from turning while I torqued it with a super-high-quality torque wrench to spec.

 

Seems to drive perfect.

Edited August 26, 2013 by SolarYellow510

Well, finished changing my axle yesterday. After an epic entire day long battle with a rusted-in ball-joint, that POS met it's match.

 

It started while trying to disconnect a sway bar endlink that was too rusted to handle an allen wrench. Once that sucker stripped out, I busted out the angle grinder with a cutting wheel installed (in other words, non-issue). Then I thought I would change out the ball-joint while I swapped out the axle, big mistake. The bolt that pinches the hub around the balljoint snapped like a twig. I fool-heartedly drilled a smaller hole in the middle of this stud that no longer had a head, tapped it, and tried to back it out. It laughed in my face after taking a dump on my dog.

 

Once I saw the hopelessness of the situation, the knuckle came off the car. A combination of PB-Blaster, 8 drill bits (most were dull to begin with), and a gallon of sweat was used in the literally 100-degree heat of Texas to drill, baby drill that sucker out. The knuckle then was attached back to the car and a pickle-fork + chisel laying on top of each other were driven between the lower control arm and the knuckle pinch point using the biggest BFH I had. The ball-joint submitted, see the aftermath below.

 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t288/sketron13/IMG_20130903_185039_zps4f2c8de6.jpg

 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t288/sketron13/IMG_20130903_185018_zps53f5ea1b.jpg

 

 

The axle was a DTA axle off ebay. I was a little nervous being as how these axles were dirt cheap (only $120 for both), but they appear to be quality pieces. Axle installed perfectly, no vibration when driving, no noise, and no grease slinging around anymore. I guess you run the risk of sub-par quality control with these axles, and you can't non-destructively estimate the strength/heat treatment or alloy identification of these suckers unless you happen to have a hardness testing machine and an OES nearby. Still, for the price, not too shabby.

Rusted in place ball joints are a major pain in the arse. Glad to see you got it all worked out.

Fortunately, my pinch bolts weren't as bad as that, but they are both going to be replaced with new ones next time I'm in there. Hope you chased the threads in the upright with a tap to clean out all the rust.

 

I learned a long time ago to use a wedge in the pinch slot to open up features like that. I was able to get it done with just a normal slotted screwdriver. It looks like you were actually getting into the ball joint with the chisel, which probably didn't help much letting it slide out.

 

I scraped the inside of the bore with a razor blade and hit it with Scotch-Brite and WD-40 to clean it up before installing the new joints.

 

I was surprised how much tighter the front end felt with new ball joints. Worth it.

Your car is from the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, isn't it?

 

Snypa's Ball Tugger and some extra thick washers did the trick for me. It took a hell of a lot of effort to get mine out.

Yes, from the Northeast. It was the closest manual turbo wagon I could find to Texas.

 

There are no threads left at this location, went with a bolt and nut on the end. Why Subaru didn't do this from the get-go is beyond me. Also used anti-seize on the new balljoint so I don't repeat this in the future (at least on this side).

 

I'll snap a few pics of the DTA axle next to the original Subaru axle when I get a chance.

Amazingly, there were two Outback XT Limited manuals for sale at the same time in Austin when I got mine this summer. The other one had been painted.

Going to attempt this tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

 

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Got under there this evening, and the boots on the axle look fine, but the seal must be gone because I can see where the fluid has been leaking. This has me more concerned though because there's a sound reminiscent of a bad wheel bearing coming from that side, but I tried moving the wheel to see if the bearings might be bad and it seems fine. Now I'm hoping it's not indicative of something horribly wrong inside my transmission.

Well, finished changing my axle yesterday...

 

Don't feel too bad, I got washed out on my first try last weekend; I know from peeking inside the threadhole of the pinch that my LBJ must be your guy's twin. I miraculously got the bolt out (some of it in the form of a tight little cloud of rust) with an electric impact, but my crowbar didn't have the girth to budge the joint more than 1/32 or so; I'll be going back in with a diamond wedge.

I also made quick work of stripping the allen on the EL, and resorted to visegripping the inner washer/seat to get it back on.

 

Add my voice to the swelling chorus that NE cars really turn this apparently straightforward DIY down a byway through some unhospitable and profanity-evoking territory.

Finished mine last night, still have the bearing noise and now it's leaking worse than before. Pretty sure the dealer parts guy sold me the wrong seal. Now I get to take it apart again. Yay!

what's the part number for the seal, from autozone. I don't seem to be choosing the right terms to search on the autozone site. 5mt 08 obxt.

 

...or I guess they might not sell them.

MT or AT? Axle seal at the differential?

MT or AT? Axle seal at the differential?

 

+1.

 

Either way, I think it's dealer-only. It was only like $7 though.

 

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thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread. took care of my axle in no time at all.

 

i'll add one thing about the transmission seal. I was careful on removal and the seal was still fairly new so I didn't replace. I have one just incase it does start to leak.

 

when placing the axle back into the transmission i rotated the axle so that the ends of the snap ring (the piece that snaps back in the tranny) were in the groove and that way i would have less chance of damaging the seal. I also jacked the car up rather high (safely) so I had a clear line of site to the tranny so i could slowly and carefully control the axle's entry.

 

once again, THANKS!

+1.

 

Either way, I think it's dealer-only. It was only like $7 though.

 

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I recently did an axle (found a torn boot when I was doing a wheel bearing), and while O'Reilly had an axle that worked, they didn't have a seal, and neither did Autozone when I swung by. O'Reilly have an "Output shaft seal" which is side specific, but it isn't the right seal. Ended up getting a seal from a buddy who runs a shop for $7.

Guys, I read all 33 plus pages, but my car is a bit different. It's a 3.0R JDM spec B (5EAT), and it is an EZ30 engine, the same as the USDM. So armed with that knowledge, here's the situation:

 

The passenger side outer boot has a small leak (very fresh grease). So I think I caught it just at the start. The part listing for what I think I need is this:

 

Non-OEM CV Axel Shaft

 

OEM CV Axel from Subarupartsforyou.com

 

Or should I just reboot it?

 

Beck Arnley CV Boot Kit

 

I hate the thought of going to a dealer here in Germany for a JDM car. But I do have access to a lift and proper tools.