Well its time for my bj spacer/ lc coil lift this weekend. I was just wondering
how to check if my cv joints need replacing? The boots are in good shape and they dont make any noise but i hate to tear my 4runner apart twice. Is there a exessive play tolerance? Thanks

 

if the boots aren't even torn i wouldn't worry about it. when they click you'll know it's time for new ones

 

if they look like this, they're bad




Yeah, if the boots are still in top-knotch shape, I wouldn't even sweat it

The rollers inside them really wont wear down untill they are deprived of grease, which is what happened with mine after both inner boots ripped and the old grease was washed and slung out in s few water crossings

 

IF they are broken you need to replace them.

 

Good advice.

 

lol, ya think!

 

my simple test for front cv's is 1. check the boots with your finger in each bellows' groove for slits where the grease could come out. 2. in grass (preferably, its quietest) or a dirt lot, turn the wheel to full left or right (choose one) and listen for a series of loud clicks from the opposite side as you "goose" the gas pedal. get swirling in a circle quickly to really test it.

::
the inside of the cv is just ball bearings in a cage. as long as the grease is in there, you shouldn't hear the clicking of the bearings against the cage. cv failure is when the cage busts because the balls don't have enough lube to scoot around properly.

as said above, if there's no splits in the boots, the original amount of grease should still be there. if as you said there's no noise, they should be ok.


the bonus of disingaging hubs on a 4wd is the cv's just chill there rather than spinning, so they endure pretty well.

rear cv's like in an old beetle last moderately well because there's no turn flex, just up/down suspension flex. front wheel drive cv's get a lot of stress to the boot, more chance to split like folding a piece of paper in the same place over an over, so more chance for the grease to be squeezed out.

sorry for the long post. hope it helps

 

good tests

might I suggest putting it in 4wd before the acceleration testing though