CV joint boot patch repair

Charming. It's a free country so you can say what you like, I guess, up to a point. Obviously I don't appreciate being told to "**** off". I think most people would consider that highly offensive.

Many Internet sites forbid the use of those words, and will delete messages containing them; you'd risk being fired from many jobs if you used the words at work; or struck off a GPs list at the surgery, etc, etc, etc. So they're not that harmless, are they? Why use them here when there are so many other good words to choose from?

Regards George

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

I broke one once - but I had ignored it making popping noises for a /very/ long time.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (George Bray) contains these words:

I've always found they just push out.

Yup. And a worn prop shaft UJ will cause vibration long before it fails.

Just a quick point, it's normally referred to as a driveshaft.

A hammer? Shouldn't need to get involved in whacking it, apart from a light tap to loosen it.

All you'll need to do is ensure that the suspension leg has free movement in all horizontal directions. There are basically two things you'll need do to achieve this:

1. Pop out the track rod end (steering tie-rod outer balljoint to use another name). First you undo the nut (usually 17mm or 19mm) with a ratchet/socket, then you need to pop it out. Don't whack the threaded bit with a hammer as you'll f*ck the thread up. Some people say you can tap the side of the bit that it goes into to shock it out as they're tapered, though I've never had any luck doing it that way (maybe I haven't hit it hard enough). Personally I'd recommend spending about £12 on the lever-style balljoint splitter (mine is a Sealey one, find it in your local tool shop or motor factors) - a brilliant tool that makes it very easy indeed.
2. Separate the bottom balljoint. There should be a clamp bolt + nut which you'll need to undo. Then you'll need to loosen it by whacking it with a hammer. The chances are the balljoint splitter won't do the job for this, which is a pain. So just keep whacking it until it loosens, then lever it down with the biggest bar you can find.

Once you've done that, then hop in your Delorean, go back to before you loosened the two balljoints, and put the handbrake on. Then get a big breaker bar and a big socket (often 30mm) and loosen the hub nut. You might need to remove the hub cap first, and possibly a split pin as well.

The time travel element of that might not be neccessary if you've got someone around to help you that can step on the brakes for you, but it's best to do it first anyway, and easier with all the wheels on the ground anyway.

So with the hub nut loosened and the suspension leg moving freely, all you'll then need to do is swing the suspension leg out and the splined end will slide out. It should be well greased and slide out freely, but if it doesn't, give it an encouraging tap with a hammer.

As far as the other end goes it can either be yanked out, levered out or it could be a flange connection where you'll need to undo 6 bolts, probably allen-key or torx-style bolts. Undo these one by one. You may need to rotate the driveshaft to get access - best thing to do is put the car in gear, undo one, put it in neutral, then rotate it to gain access, put it in gear so it locks and you can work against the gearbox, etc etc until they're all loosened.

And then it should come out. Easy really.

Peter

George Bray wrote on 12 Aug 2004 23:13:56 -0700:

You find it offensive to be told to asterisk-asterisk-asterisk-asterisk off? Or to be told to zoom off?

If you beleive I was swearing at you, that is perhaps your problem. I said nothing of the sort. Or do you find asterisks offensive as well as swear words? Are there other "bad symbols"?

They're not harmless soley because people take offense at them for some odd reason. Not necessarily due to any offense intended by the person making the remark, but simply because of the fact that it's a "bad word".

Sure, they can be offensive and insulting, but so can non swear words -- it's how they're used, not what words they are that offends. Me, anyway.

If other people feel that a specific word is so bad that the actual sound of the word is offensive, then I do feel sorry for them.

Smart idea. Thank you all for various suggestions re. my CV joint boot repair on a Rover 214 - Rover 414.

Just as a follow-up, in case it helps others, here's what I found:

The original 'rotational' screeching noise after 10 miles appears to have been coming from a bolt which had fallen down from the engine bay to become trapped between the Rover 214 - Rover 414 gearbox and the drive axle. The bolt head was worn down as if one had used an angle grinder. Why the car needed to warm up before the noise started, I do not know. I'm glad I did a DIY repair because if a garage had found that bolt, they would probably have kept the secret to themselves and tried to sell me a new gearbox.

I replaced the CV boot gaiter the 'long winded' way by removing the axle. I'm glad I did. It was a relatively easy job, and I do not see the point now, of using stretch boots or suchlike if you do the job yourself. Of course, time is money for garages; another reason why I would not use a garage.

The Haynes Manual proved useless. At least it only went so far and caused me a great deal of inconvenience due to misleading information. I had to make two trips to the motor factors due to the fact that the Haynes Manual gave bad advice on the tools required: (a) They said a ball joint separator was needed, and showed a photo of a hinged type, just like I already had. But there is insufficient room for that type of separator, I found, with the lower ball joint on the Rover 214 - Rover 414, so I had to make a special journey to buy a forked type of separator. (b) I had to make a second trip to the motor factors to buy a hub separator. I can't see how you would separate a Rover 214 - Rover 414 hub from the axle without one of those tools. The Haynes Manual should have warned that a hub separator might well be necessary for a Rover

Regards George

The message from snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (George Bray) contains these words:

Because some driveshafts are much harder to take apart.