I am putting in new ball joints, CV's, TRE's etc. in my 94. So I had to rent a pickle fork from this local shop today. After meandering through all the broke down Dodge's and Fords I find the owner under a Chevy and I told him I was here to rent the pickle fork. He slid out from under the truck and went and got the fork. Out of curiosity I decided to ask him how much he charges to do the CV's on my rig. He heads into his office and starts typing on this old archaic IBM clone one key at a time. After 10 minutes of this he says "looks like $480.00 for LABOR to do the CV." I said $480.00 doesn't include the CV?. He replies, "nope, thats my labor for the one side, the CV will be around $150.00. For both it'll be over a grand. You wanna giterdone?"
I said, uh no thanks I'll just take the pickle fork.

 

thats insane.. do it yourself takes all of two hours. Its not hard at all.

 

Good call. You will find that simple do it yourself will save you thousands in no time. And buy the pickle fork. You can get a decent one for about 15 bones. If you use it once, you will use it twice or 15 more times. I bought one when I did my BJ's and it wasn't long till I needed it to pop off my PS pulley, and my GF's tie rod ends...you get the point.

 

I bought a TRE puller for 5 dollars more Works MUCH nicer then a pickle fork.

 

holy crap at that rate i should start doing them for people both sides for 600 bucks
thats seriously insane
some poor people are out there actually paying that much

 

I take it this is on a Toyota.
Something I did on mine that makes it ALOT easier to r+r CV's is to Knock out the 6 studs on the stub axles and go get some HARDENED bolts and lock nuts.
By doing this you won't have to go thru unhooking the bj's to replace the cv axles.
I find this REAL handy if you need to change one on the trail.
Have done this to 3 different trucks and not 1 problem.

 

Most shops charge between 1.5-2.0 hours a shaft, he didn't know what he was talking about or was charging 240 an hour. What town? The fact he came out from a chevy should tell you just rent stuff from him don't shop there or give me a call

 

lol...I did both of mine in 4hrs(including beer), for $150.

 

MACTOWN this afternoon. I was stunned! He seriously quoted me that figure. I asked him 3 times to be sure. He kept saying "You gotta take that whole front end apart."
I am tearing the thing apart in the morning. If I run into problems I will call you. Are you in Redway???
Thanks

 

Maybe you have to take apart the front end on a FWD car, but not on these trucks. I did a quick write up a couple weeks on this a couple weeks ago.

Also, if you pound out the studs, and grind the splines off, you have a free high-strength bolt.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...v-boot-156096/