Perpetual Novice

I'm preparing to do both my outer front CV's. Never done these before but the process doesn't look too much harder than say a brake job.

I can see that the official method is to disconnect the upright from the upper control arms, and the unofficial way is to disconnect the lower control arm.

For those that have done the unofficial method, are you disconnecting the lower arm at the upright? if anyone took a pic while messing with this, please let me know.

skiracer

at the back (bolted) interface to the frame. No risk to the ball joint that way. I would highly recommend replacing the entire half-shaft rather than just the CV joint. Get rebuilt axles from raxles.com (high quality) or your local auto parts store should have them.

A8CT

Let me look, pretty sure I took some pics in process a while ago.

Bob

Perpetual Novice

seems like it's not terribly difficult to do just a boot, and they cost only 15 bucks. Does the inner boot tend to fail on these axles as well?

skiracer

not to mention that the inner CVs will go bad, too. If you are in major economy mode, the boot itself is definitely the cheapest fix, but you will likely need to go back and fix something else soon. Replacing the whole axle will get you several years without having to deal with the joints. It's a time vs money thing.

Perpetual Novice

of removing the outer cv joint with the axle bolt while the half shaft is on the car?

theraudi1

<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/129357.phtml">https://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/129357.phtml</a</li></ul>

Perpetual Novice

So, if there are any other novices out there, heres my advice on what seemed to work and what did not.

1)I didn't preclean. by the end, my wife said "you look like you fell in a mine". She's burning my clothes, and I was luck she let me back in the house at all. I suggest you get it clean first, it'll be easier.

2)The infamous pinch bolt was a piece of cake for me, a complete non-issue. I also undid the lower control arm though to get a wee bit more room. I wonder if the pinch bolt issue is a road-salt thing or if it's because my car has only 39,000 miles.

3)The trick of separating the joint with the axle (see Rob Andrew's trick) on the car does work BUT getting the joint back on can be tricky. First one was fine, second one I wasted 3 hours on it. You have to hold the shaft, line up the joint, move the upright and hammer on the joint at the same time. Did I mention that the joint, hammer, halfshaft, and you are covered in grease (wish I had precleaned)
After cursing at it for 3 hours straight I finally remembered the original method of removing the half-shaft and that was a piece of cake.

Next time I will remove the whole halfshaft (though I might pull the joint off first just to get it soaking faster)

4) speaking of soaking, I used mineral spirits, followed by brake cleaner...next time I think I'll get some B-12 chemtool cans instead, always follow with brake cleaner to be sure all the solvent is gone.

5) use a metal marker to write the torque specs next to the bolts you move.

6) after reassembling the upright, I coated the pinch bolt with a brush on acrylic clear coating (don't get any on the rubber parts) I'm just hoping I can keep it from corroding in the future.