I noticed that a boot has tore off the axel on the inner side of the end of the axel that goes into the transmission. I just bought this car and I've been noticing a loud humming type noise whenever I go around a left curve while accelerating. Obviously the boot will need to be replaced, but does anybody know if the drive shaft or anything else will have to be replaced? How much labor do you think I would be looking at for a job like this and would this be something that I could do myself. I live in Mississippi. Thanks. DJ
Seems DS answered this for you at the beginning of May,, however for the benefit of new readers I will repost his answer..hope I have his permission..
My '91, first '92 and recently-purchased second '92 all did this. The noise wasn't *loud*, but it was present. If yours is loud, it's because the engine mounts are worn, off center, or both. The mounts on these cars are not fixed; when certain bolts are loosened they allow the engine to be shifted laterally by a surprisingly large amount. There is a procedure for centering them properly, and this should be followed if you're to get maximum life from your exhaust pipe-to-manifold junction/gasket (and freedom from noises on left turns). Assuming your mounts are in good condition -- which they may not be, given the car is over a decade old -- your engine is too far over to the right.
OK, that means (a) the other two engine mounts and the rear transaxle mount are probably similarly tired, and (b) you may not have realized the importance of re-centering the engine after replacing any of the mounts.
That's your transfer gears in the transaxle's final-drive. Most of these cars make this noise, and in most cases it is not at all loud. If it is loud, it is either because sagged-out engine/trans mounts are allowing contact between the engine/trans and the body, or because something is seriously wrong with the transfer gears. Since the transfer gears usually don't fail, I suspect the former.
Depending how long it's been like that, you may get away with just a new boot or you may need a new inner CV joint (or, more commonly, a rebuilt left halfshaft).
What was the matter with the detailed info I gave you on this problem when you reported it in early May?
Since the CV joint seems to have gotten noisy, you'll probably need to replace the half-shaft. I don't know what you can and can't do; that's a job I've done before (once when I spotted the torn boot before the CV joint was damaged, and I was able to rebuild it!). Take a look in your factory service manual and see how feasible it looks to you.
The one thing to *not* do is replace the dead boot with an EZ-boot, or whatever they call those split boots that you can put on the half-shaft without pulling it. There are two reasons for this: first, your CV joint needs to be rebuilt or your half-shaft replaced, so the half-shaft has to come out for the job anyway. Second, EZ-boots are crap that are broken by design.
The split boots are junk, but there are non-split type replacement boots that work quite well. If the old boot is caught in time, and the CVJ is in good shape, no reason not to put on a new boot and keep driving.
Sorry I wasn't clear: I didn't mean to imply he shouldn't replace the boot, just that he shouldn't use an EZ-boot. But, I don't think I'd want to just slap on a new boot and keep driving: once the integrity of the seal is breached, I wouldn't want to trust the joint to have not gotten contaminated. And once I've taken the half-shaft out, rebuilding the joint is a comaparitively small task. I'd *really* hate to just replace the boot, and find out in a few thousand miles that I needed to have rebuilt the CV joint!
Maybe most (all?) would also agree here that *IF* you could trust aftermarket sources for quality rebuilt half axles, because your time is worth something (literally true in a job shop situation), it would be a reasonable decision to replace the half axle even if all that's needed is a joint cleaning, repacking, and rebooting, but because of the risk of getting lousy rebuilts, it might be worth refurbing the original half shaft even if the labor makes that route cost a little more. One could argue that *IF* he finds a reliable source for quality rebuilts, that the philosophy would be "when in doubt, replace the half shaft". Some claim that NAPA is such a source, and I tend to believe it based on limited (DIY) personal experience and what I have read on some forums.
Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")
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