>From: wself@viking.emcmt.edu (Will Self)
>Yes Yes Uncle Joel, we want a story!  A story!

It was a dark and stormy night ...

CV-JOINTS:
   This a fairly simple repair job ... but it is one of the messiest.
   wear very old disposable clothes (that you were going to throw away
   anyway).  on the 1968-1979 buses, skinny people can do this without
   jacking up the bus. for us vanagons and fat people, you'll need to
   put the bus up on jack stands.

   get an old refrigerator cardboard carton (from the trash around
   appliance stores ... they'll usually give you one). put this on the
   ground so you can lay on it while working. keeps you from getting
   cold and dirty. works better than a blanket cause you don't have to
   wash it when you get grease all over it ... and it's usually cleaner
   than the blanket to begin with.

   clean off the joints as much as possible before you start work.
   then get the bolts off ... i usually leave one bolt in the
   wheel/trans while i take all the others off. then i can finger-loosen
   the bolt while i hold onto the axle shaft. do one side at a time.
   try to keep the axle oriented in the same relative position (i.e.,
   wheel side to wheel, axle side to axle). why? well, i don't know ...
   but it's stuck in my brain that that's the way it ought to be done.
   KEEP TRACK OF THE LITTLE TWO-HOLE SPACERS AND LOCK WASHERS.

   i put the axle into a vise on a bench (lucky me) and tap the metal
   ring on the boot (with a hammer and punch/screwdriver ... gently)
   until the boot is disconnected from the cv-joint.
   DON'T LET THE JOINT TILT!! if you do, the joint is hard to get back
   straight and some of the balls may fall out.
   ** if you are replacing the joints with new ones, you don't have to
   worry so much here. in fact, keep the old joints and disassemble
   them, you can clean up the little balls and play Captain Queeg from
   Caine Mutiny with them. **

   the joint should slide off the axle. on older buses, there may be a
   great big circlip on the end of the axle. you'll have to get this
   off first. later models do NOT have it, so i guess you can leave it
   off. it's a real pain to get back on! DO NOT LET THE JOINT GET DIRTY
   or into metal shavings or rocks or anything like that. also note
   the relative position of the joint and its markings ... so you can
   put it back on the shaft in the same way. (i.e., so the writing is
   lined up with the shaft in the same way they were). also watch for
   the other joint to suddenly want to fall to the floor ...
   cause you just removed half the weight. that is, the axle-joint
   will become unbalanced when you remove one of the joints ...
   be ready for it.

   once the joint is off ... slide the old boot off, clean as much of
   the old grease as you can, and put the new boot on. then start
   cramming as much new grease as you can into the new boot. i use
   valvoline moly ep axle grease which comes in a cardboard tube for
   about $1.50. i put one-half a tube into each joint/boot. it has been
   my experience that you can't put too much grease, but you can sure
   put not-enough.

   squeeze some grease into the joint as well. once or twice, i've
   cleaned off the joint and regreased it ... but you have to be really
   careful about not tilting and so forth.  i don't think it will hurt
   to just re-grease it without cleaning.

   clean up the outer edges of the joint, and the inner edges of the
   new boot flange (the metal part), then get the boot flange started
   onto the joint. be sure to look at the other joint (still on the
   axle) to make sure you're putting it back on correctly. tap the boot
   flange gently with a hammer to get it 'seated' onto the joint.

   now to the other joint ... the other one on that same axle.

   then get back up under the bus and put the axle back in. be sure to
   tighten the bolts back to specs.  i always use the porsche star-hole
   bolts to replace the old vw-bolts. costs extra and you have to have a
   special tool to remove/tighten them, but they don't round out and
   can be removed or tightened easily even when greasy. they cost about
   $1.30 per bolt and you'll 24 of them! :) lots of people don't do
   that. :)  you'll need a few (say, six or more) extra bolts ... get
   them from a junk yard or FLAPS. why? cause several will round out
   as you take them out. also get at least two (2) of the little hex
   head wrenches/socket thingies.  these round off, too.

   putting the axle, with both joints on it, is the hardest part ...
   it's heavy. i put a couple of bolts through each joint and try to
   get one of the bolts started at each end ... then i can let go of
   the axle and put the other bolts in.
   BE SURE TO PUT THOSE LITTLE DOUBLE-HOLE SPACERS BACK. AND
   DON'T FORGET THE LITTLE LOCK-WASHERS!

   i'm sure there are several things i've left out ... but i can't
   think of them right now. it's not a 'difficult' job, but it is a
   messy one. try to keep things clean.  both sides are the same, and
   each joint on each axle is the same. the cv-joints are the same for
   all buses from 1971-1991, and the boots are the same.

   with sufficient grease in the boot, you'll be ok for many many
   miles . i've gotten to the point of doing it to my new buses
   (well, ok, the last new bus i got in 88) immediately after i get
   them. that was 73,000 miles ago and not a peep out of the joints yet.
   i feel like i ought to re-grease them this summer, though ...
   paranoid preventive maintenance. :)

   the first time you do it, it will likely take you at least six
   hours to finish ... which means you'll have to get cleaned up
   to eat lunch/supper. best to have sandwiches or burgers ...
   so you don't have to go inside and side down anywhere.

   be sure to have a set of vise grips handy. some bolts may not want
   to come off the joint (being already rounded out from before).

and they lived happily ever after. :)

the end.