I am replacing my OUTER cv joint, but i can not get my old off. Do i need to take the inner joint out first, then take off the outer by hitting with a hammer when in a vise?? This is what i have heard but i do not want to huirt the inner boot when removing. The service manual that i bought does not help at all.

 

I got a Haynes Manual in addition to the service manual. The Haynes manual has more info to help people that have never done it before. I gave it a quick look and it seems to say that you need to remove the inner CV joint before working on the outer. There are retainers and snap rings to remove. The Haynes manual is pretty cheap, check it out.

Using a hammer is not the first thing I would try. Also you will need the parts needed to reinstall the boot. I would suggest that you also get a new oil seal in case the old one gets damaged. I had to replace a torn boot and when I put it all back together the oil seal leaked.

 

You need to remove the entire axle from the machine and clamp it in a vice. You want to clamp it so the outer CV is down. You then want to remove the boot to the outer joint and slide it up and out of your way. Wipe the excess grease out of the joint so you can see where the inner race slides over the splines on the shaft. Now get a brass drift and place it on the inner race and smack it with a good-sized hammer. Then loosen the axle, spin it around in the vice 180* and clamp it back down. Do the same to this side and keep going back and forth until the inner race comes off of the shaft and the outer joint is now removed.

Now tap the inner race so one of the ball bearings is facing the top. You should be able to tap the race enough that the ball will pop out of the cage. Then tap on the other side of the race and do the same until all of the ball bearings are out of the cage. You will notice on the cage where the bearings sat, 2 of the bearing holes directly across from each other are machined slightly wider than the others. This is the tricky part as the inner race is very slippery. You want to tap the inner race around in the cage so it is pointing straight up. If you grab it with your fingers, you and align the inner race up with the 2 larger holes in the cage and one of inner race points will slide in the larger cage hole. The inner race will then slide to that side of the cage and you can pull up on it and it will come out.

When you have the inner cage removed, the cage will be left in there. In order to remove this, you need to find those same 2 larger holes in the cage and line them up with the flats of the cup. You will see on the cup where there are grooves where the ***** moved. The flats between these grooves will fit in the 2 larger holes in the cage. So line the holes up with either 2 flats directly across from each other, tilt the cage so it's vertical in the cup and pull. The cup grooves should slide neatly through the 2 larger holes in the cage and there you have removed all of the CV joint.

Now you can inspect each part a replace what's worn/broken. To install everything, just reverse the above directions. Good luck and let me know if you need anything else.