Hi, my son?s Mk3 golf (94) offside cv joint is making a bit of a racket, rubber boot has split, no grease inside. What?s the best way to replace the cv joint? Do I have to undo the suspension mounting bolts, bottom wishbone joint and steering track rod end or will there be enough movement just removing track rod end? Can I leave the inner transmission end of the driveshaft connected or do I have to completely remove the whole assembly? Constructive advice would be appreciated! I?m planning on supervising my son losing his knuckles as I?ve left plenty of skin behind years ago on Mini CV?s!
It is enough to disconnect the bottom wishbone joint, the steering rod and transmission end of driveshaft can remain in place.
The bottom wishbone joint can be just taken out of the erm... wheel assembly? Sorry, I dont know how the proper name for that thing where wheel bearing, brake caliper & co. live. But sometimes the joint just does not want to go out, so you could need to disconnect the joint from wishbone (3 bolts). This brings the suspension out of alignment, so you will have to realign it afterwards.
Dont move (push) the car while the CV joint is out, the wheel bearing can be damaged.
It can happen, that you just can't take the CV joint off the driveshaft while the driveshaft is on the car. In this case you will neeed to disconnect the driveshaft from the gearbox. If you do this, you will need to change the rubber boot of the inner CV joint as well (not expensive), together with bolts, grease and sealing gasket, because that gasket is covered with a kind of sticky tape at both sides, and it will not stick again. That gasket usually holds in place pretty good, I was unable to separate the inner CV joint from the gearbox without some rude measures (i.e. putting the driveshaft back, starting the engine and carefully driving forwards while holding the brakes).
Its not so bad. Get several pairs of proper working gloves as a CV joint grease is a nasty thing and your wife will be _not_ amused, I assure you :)
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