Jim Morgan wrote:
> Greetings All,
> I have a question about c.v. joint/ shaft removal and the archive did no
> touch upon this.
>
> I have a 80 ail cooled / manuel trans that the driver side  out board  boot
> is torn. I noticed this when I removed the engine for a rebuild. Can I just
> unbolt the inner and outer jounts and remove the shaft / assembly with out
> having to remove the the 46mm axle nut and axel shaft?

With the engine out, its an even easier job as you can sit right in
there and pull it out as you said. No need to consider pulling the
wheel. Just did mine on the driver's side last week.

Just make sure you have a good 'bite' on the bolts, or you may strip one
of them. If its really messy in the cave, get comfortable and use an ice
pick or such thing to clean the  bolt heads out. Time well spent. Its an
incredibly simply job, only a pita because of the way you will have to
bend around to get into the 'cave'

One more important tidbit. Break the bolts loose on the transmission
side first. If you remove the outside one first, good luck keeping the
transmission from turning with no engine in there :-)

As soon as you get the shaft away from the trans, use a couple of
tywraps to keep the joints and the boots together. Older CVs will
sometimes just fall apart if you let them swivel too much.

Then, when its time to reinstall, leave tywraps in place, and get a few
bolts just started, then cut the ty wraps. It sucks to have those things
come apart at the wrong time.

One more unsolicited comment. When its time to reinstall, find an old
bolt that fits the threads, and is long enough, so that you can reach
into the cave, get it started at twelve o'clock, and then hang the joint
from that bolt, in order to get a couple of bolts started slighty. Just
make sure the "hanger" is long enough to get at to remove it. Makes it a
ton easier to get things started.

Have fun.

John