hoffy85

Last summer I put all new CV axles and other front end parts on my 1993 toyota pickup. I was under the truck the other day and noticed that the CV boot had slipped off. How difficult is it to get the boot slid back on? Or do I need to replace the boot now? Any advice is appreciated!

scope103

It's not too hard to slide it back on, but the boot is supposed to be full of grease. Particularly if you drove on any wet roads, you have probably lost a lot of the grease and acquired an excellent grinding paste (sand and grit).

So I would remove the boot, clean the joint, and replace the grease and boot. ACTUALLY, I would break down and purchase a reman'd half-shaft. Last time I checked, the price of the reman was very close to the price of a set of boots. And replacing the boots yourself is a messy, thankless job.

bearcat2

Before you purchase a reman, check the difference between it and the price of a new one. I have never had to replace one on a 22re (have replaced boots in the past, and thankless is ONE word to describe it). I do however have remanned Napa ones on my Tacoma. If I had to do again I would put new ones on it, as the local Napa guy recommended the last time I came in to replace a remanned one. Only about $20 more and as he said, "the remanned ones are junk". The remanned ones are lifetime gaurantee however, and they are considerably less of a pain to replace on a Tacoma than an older Toyota. So I replace them, the boots go bad in a matter of months, and I drive them for a couple years until the CV joint starts to make noise, then I take them off and go down and exchange them for a new one. If it was on my 89 I would spend the money to buy new ones, they are a LOT* bigger project to replace, not something I want to do every couple years to save a few bucks.

*Not complicated, don't be scared to do it, but don't plan on doing it in the driveway with a headlamp after work when you need the truck the next day, you can do it (ask me how I know) but your going to be cussing yourself.

scope103

Then let me mention one thing that is not explicitly in the FSM. If you have the wheels dangling (frame on jack stands), the angle is wrong and you will never be able to fight the half-shafts out. If you lift the wheel as though the truck were sitting on the tires (I use a trolley jack under the rotor), the angle is "correct" and the half-shafts will come out easily (some here have reported having to jack up the opposite corner a little, to get a little more compression on the front corner. You get the idea.)

Don't succumb to cave-man mechanics. You don't need to remove the shock, or the ball joints, and you definitely don't need to take a sledge hammer to the studs in the differential flange. It's your truck, you can do all that if you want, but you don't need to.