inner drive shaft boot replacement

[urabus1995]

Hi guys and dolls,

i have a 1995 legacy wagon, and realised that once again , i have a split rubber boot on my drive shaft.

This is the third time in two years that the same boot has gone.

I realise that it is very close to the cat , and maybe the heat causes the problem.

I want to do this repair myself this time , but dont know what it involves.

I only have limited tools etc, -----no lift , no pit .

Do I lose my gearbox oil if i remove the drive shaft?

I have undertaken major repairs on various cars in the past , like clutch changes, caliper changes and lots of other things which seemed at the time , hard to do , but turned out to be easy work , once the problem was identified.

maybe my repair man did not change the last boot---I did not check.

If anyone has done this job, I would be really grateful for your advice.

I dont want to put a two part split boot type thing on this car, I really want to do it properly.

thanks to anyone who has time to reply

John

[nipper]

I havent done it but you wont loose any fluid from pulling the axle. Haynes has a real good step by step process with pictures. Use a genuine subaru boot, as they beefed them up for this reason.

Also consider replacing the axle, as it may be far easier and less messy.

 

nipper

[Dickensheets]

I've done them. Get the Haynes manual or factory service manual on CD.

 

Not hard. A pry bar to seperate the balljoint is handy so you can pull the wheel outwards and thus the shaft. A small hammer and punch is required to drive out the roll pin. I would STRONGLY suggest replace the entire shaft (~$60). I've not had good times replacing just a boot, a lot more work!

 

32mm deep socket and 18" cheater bar for the Jesus nut is a must.

 

Good luck, rd

[urabus1995]

Thanks NIPPER and Dickens , you have both given me encouragement for the task in hand. This should be fun, in maybe one or two feet of snow.

I now have the manuals, thanks to Leg777 , --------or is it just Joss?

32 mm long reach . + a serious hammer? mmmm well

Sounds like the way I used to treat my Ferrai, Fords and all these other crap cars.

I love SUBARU in all forms, they are simply the best.

lots of love to you all,

 

I will keep you all informed of the progress.

 

John

[idosubaru]

it's not that hard to do. the toughest part is knocking that axle nut loose. best to have a 3/4" socket or an impact wrench (air compressor style). they are very tight and i've seen many broken 1/2" sockets and breaker bars on axle nuts.

 

i would also recommend changing the axle if you can get one, boots are super annoying and at this point an annoying, messy job that still might end up in clicking down the road would surely suck. but...i'm almost positive i've seen people replace the inner boot without removing the axle nut....pull it off the transmission, rebuild and reinstall. probably require removing something from the hub, but i believe you can leave the axle nut intact if you really wanted to. i always remove it since i replace the entire axle.

 

i've also seen 36mm axle nuts, so if 32mm doesn't work then 36 is your next bet.

 

no loss of diff oil like you'd see in a honda.

[srs_49]

I agree that breaking loose the axle nut is probably the hardest part of the job. I've never done this on my Outback, but did do it on my '92 Sentra. After the nut was removed and the caliper & rotor taken off, I had to remove the lower suspension pieces from the strut so that it could swing out enough at the bottom to clear the splines on the drive shaft. There was one more bracket/support on the frame that the drive shaft was bolted to that had to be freed, but that was only 3 ~14mm bolts. Then the drive shaft just slid out of the trannny. No fluid lost, or maybe just a bit.

 

I think it took me a weekend (actually, 2 aftrernoons would be more like it), but I was taking my time and feeling my way. If you've done the kinds of jobs you mentioned, you shouldn't have any problem (except for the nut,as mentioned).

[hohieu]

I did it without removing the the half shaft from the front hub. This is very easy especially if you're just replacing the inner boot.

 

I would also leave the ball joint alone unless you're replacing that as well. the cinch bolt on the knuckle was impossible to remove in my case. Instead:

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by avk

With the control arm method, you only need to remove one, front mount bolt (17 mm head and nut), plus the sway bar link bolt. There is enough play in the other bushing for the inner joint to clear the stub shaft. The caveats are that re-tightening must be performed with wheels on the ground, or at least on low ramps, and the nut is officially not reusable (mine is OK with blue Loctite). But same things already apply for the sway bar bushing bolt.

 

 

I would recommend buying OEM grease for the outside joints because the BJ side does not disassemble, making it nearly impossible to get all the old grease out even if you pull the cv axle shaft out of the hub. My original outside boot was still good so I just reused the old grease and slid the new boot on for the time being.

OEM front outside boots are made of plastic, which is why they must be discarded if ever removed. I used aftermarket EMPI boot kits for both joints which were neoprene rubber. The plastic ones probably withstand the radical steering angles of the BJ much better, but neoprene is much easier to seal. Plastic boots also require heavier duty clamps.

Scribe all the alignment marks on the SFJ (inside -- differential side) as you disassemble things, making sure to avoid contact surfaces. My permanent marker was useless as all the marks wiped away as I cleaned the old grease off the joint and outer race. Maybe there's a better way.

3/16" punch knocked the spring pin out with no problem -- this can be done from below on the driver's side.

I used zipties to secure the boots, but will attach the cv boot clamps when I have time to pick up the necessary tool.

For those who care, there was quite a bit of lateral play on the differential stub, where the axle shaft goes into the front differential (manual trans.).

[Dickensheets]

If you are unsure of yourself do this:

 

Try to loosen the hub nut, and the pinch bolt on the ball joint. If you can you are 70% complete. If not reevaluate. No harm done at all.

 

rd