Over Thanksgiving break I will be installing a new CV boot(inner/driver side) and installing new shocks front and rear and a new steering stabilizer. About how long will all of this take and about how hard is this going to be to do? And should I install new CV boots inner and outer on both the passenger side and the driver side if only the driver side inner has gone bad? the CV boot seems easy but the shocks seem a lot harder any recommendations would be great...thanks in advance.

 

Replacing cv boots is much more difficult than replacing shocks. Search through the board. There are lots of threads detailing the procedure. FYI, you will have to pound out 3-4 of the studs that hold the cv axle to the diff half-shaft.

Personally, I would replace both the boots once you get the axle off. Might as well do a little preventative maintenance while the cv axle is off.

 

They also sell boots that are split down the middle, and glue together at the seam, saves ALOT of work.

 

thanks, would the glued together ones be worth it? i mean it sounds to easy

 

Yeah man, beats the hell outa tearing the whole shaft out. It sounds easy cuz it is

 

I forgot about those. Seems like a half-assed repair to me, but it will save you a few hours of cussing and knuckle-busters.

 

You don't have to pound out any studs if you remove the 4 bolts holding the lower balljoint on.

 

Hmmm.. I'll have to try that next time. I've always just removed the studs.

 

Do you reuse the studs again when you put it back together? Or have you replaced them with regular bolts and nuts? Bolts and nuts would make it even easier than my method, but removing the 4 lower balljoint bolts is pretty easy. Well, after the first time anyways. The first time I did it on my '93, I broke the head off of 1 of the bolts, and had to drill it out. I replaced all 8 bolts (4 on each lower balljoint) at that time, just to be safe.

 

thanks, i'll look for those threads when it comes time to do all of this

 

I replaced all the studs on my 4Runner with nuts and bolts. There are a few advantages to it:
1: you don't have to worry about the saxle rotating when you really torque the nuts, as you can just put a wrench on the bolt.

2: It makes it easier to drop the front diff. I didn't even need to touch the axles to drop mine, just pull out all the bolts and everything drops straight down.

There were some down sides when I did it though:
1: I needed 2 wrenches 18 and 19mm for the nuts+bolts respectivley(but I'm sure you can find different stuff)

2: more little pieces to drop in the snow/mud when you have to pull an axle on the trail.

These are both minor, esepcially comapired to how easy they made life.