One of the issues to repair from the lift failure incident is the CV boot on the drivers side. It got shredded by the springs exiting the chat.
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I ordered a Crown boot kit from Summit Racing, and watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos about how to replace a CV boot. Basically the outside joint has to come off for the boot to be replaced.
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In nearly every video the outer CV end has to be hammered off because there is an internal snap ring that needs to release, very much like the one that holds the axle into the diff. Here is my CV clamped in my vise with the boot cut away.
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I can tell you no amount of hammering with a BFH is going to get the end to release. Ask me how I know. Luckily the alloys used in the CV are harder than my hammers and it does not seem to be damaged.
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What ended up happening is I knocked out enough grease to discover that the snap ring has to be manually opened with snap ring pliers! In the pic above, the two ends of the ring at the 6:00 position have to be spread apart to 9:00 and 3:00 directions to release the splined shaft. Easy peasy after I figured that out.
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Here is the whole thing from the drivers side. The passengers side will be different because it has a long separate intermediate shaft. This photo kind of reminds me of the album cover from Rush’s Counterparts album.
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Here is the unit fully greased and assembled. It’s held in the vise and balanced against the band saw.
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I am temporarily stuck until I can get a pair of Oetiker pliers to clamp together the metal bands. They are on order and will arrive tomorrow.
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