DrCreosote

Today two bearings fell (were forced) out of my front left CV joint. I knew this thing was going bad and just hoped it would hang on for just a few more weeks. Anyway, rather than clicking only on left turns, it clatters around while in motion.

The trouble is, I need this to hang on another few days before I can fix it properly, but I would really like to keep the car on the road. Is there a part I can remove from the hub that will let it freewheel? On my old blazer and my F-150, there is a very obvious splined adapter, but looking at the diagrams, I can't see for sure.

1990 4Runner
3VZE Auto trans
Auto locking hubs, all the stock stuff.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Do you have the Automatic hubs or ADD ?? I am not sure just what year ADD first was offered .

The Manual hubs can be added to ADD

If they are Automatic hubs a few extra nuts you can swap to manual hubs and then run them in the free position

DrCreosote

I don't actually know what I have except that I know I don't have manual hubs. I'm only trying to make it so the axle doesn't rotate with the wheels for a few weeks when I'll have time to spend a day changing the axles. I've considered upgrading to manual hubs at that time, but for now I'm just trying to keep it drive-able.

DrCreosote

It appears I have the ADD with live hubs, so can I take this apart and let it freewheel, or is that not an option with this setup?

DrCreosote

It looks like power is delivered from the axle shaft through the drive flange to the wheel. The drive flange appears to be a single piece. I expect I can remove the drive flange and build a spacer/cover to keep the grease in and the dirt out until such time as I can get new axle shafts.

DonHagen

If you don't need 4wd, just take the dust cap off of the hub, remove that 10mm bolt, and the c clip if it has one. Remove those 5 or 6 bolts from the axle where the cv bolts up to the flange on the diff and slide the shaft right out. Replace the dust cap. Stuff a shop rag really tightly into the hub from the back. This is only temporary, but if your truck needs to move it's better to go this route than to have your cv dislocate and hit a brake line of something while you're driving.
As long as you don't mess with those big nuts and the star retainer that actually keeps the hub on, it should be fine. Just be careful you don't have grease come out of the hub and spray onto your brake rotor.
I've had to do this to limp off of a trail before. It shouldn't take an entire day to change those out, I can change a set of cv boots in about an hour once I get the right tools beside me.

If (for some reason) your truck doesn't have the really convenient flange you can unbolt the cv from, and the cvs are junk, cut it with an angle grinder. take the hub side out like I described above. Take the diff side of the cv out, you'll have to pull hard to get the c clip to disengage from the differential. Take the boot off and gut everything from the cup. Put only the cup back into the diff to keep it sealed. This will save you from getting two alignments, one after you remove the cv and one when you reinstall it.

I tried searching for you, it looks like you can buy both styles of cv for your truck. One with the 6 bolt flange and one with the shaft that goes into the diff. The flange is obviously way easier to do. I'll watch this one if you have any questions.