How to: Replace Driveshaft CV joint

[rb142]

Well, grease is a pretty good way to hold ball bearings in place...

Do those ball bearings fit back in there, or can you not get them back in place? It's hard to tell from the picture. The cover will keep them there as long as you don't let go of it. But yeah, lots of bearing grease is a good way to stick it together

 

[duke16]

They will not fit in easily. I feel like if I force them, I'm going to damage them... but they must fit in somehow.

 

[bill06447]

I picked up a new Dorman CV joint and it came like this. Can't for the life of me figure out how to get the thing back together without the ball bearings falling all over the place. Any ideas?

It's messed up, either during assembly or shipping or someone overextended it and popped the balls out. Return it and get one that's not defective. The balls are inserted during manufacturing. You're asking for trouble installing that.

Bill

 

[duke16]

That's the only one in the area, so I'm going to need to order one. Can I run without the drive shaft for the time being?

 

[1998rollover]

That's the only one in the area, so I'm going to need to order one. Can I run without the drive shaft for the time being?

With All wheel Drive you can't. You'll ruin the viscous coupling.

That CV joint is the same as the one used on Dodge Dakota 4x4 trucks. If the joint itself is still good but the boot is bad and you've caught it before grit and crud get into the joint, you can just clean it, pack it with new grease (must be the special type for CV joints) and get a new boot kit. Still have to drop the shaft to take the joint off to clean it and install the new boot.

My Mountaineer only needed the boot. The Dakota had the rubber part of the boot completely gone and the joint was all very rusty. The Mountaineer has been driven many thousands of miles, no problem with the CV joint.

When I replaced the joint in the Dakota, it took some effort to find just the joint instead of the complete shaft.

Finding a boot replacement kit for the Mountaineer was tougher. First I had to dig up a part number. Then I had to find a store that had that kit as an item they could order. Wasn't in stock, just the complete joints, so they took the boot parts from a full joint kit and ordered a boot kit to replace the parts they sold me. Otherwise it would have taken a week or more. Very nice when a parts vendor will do whatever it takes to help.

 

[1998Exp]

Posted in the wrong place - removed

 

[prayforsurf0]

I just did this replacement on my truck because I would get a loud "clunck" when reversing and turning in four wheel drive. Also replaced the U joint while I was taking the shaft off.

Everything went smoothly. Installed the boot and clamped it, lined up the bearing joint with the dust shield holes and put some grease back there before sliding the joint on the shaft spline. packed more grease on top, closed it up with the cap and reinstalled, no problems.

It drives just fine in four wheel, much like before, however now I can feel a lot of resistance when turning the wheel more than say 45 degrees either way. Wasn't like that before. If I tried to go past 45 degrees I get resistance and even knocking in the joint if I don't back off the turn and come back to where it seems comfortable.

Any ideas ?

In full disclosure I lost my alignment marks because I only marked the joint and x case flange on removal. I forgot to put a mark on the shaft before removing the old joint. Could this be a balancing issue ? This is very strange to me.

 

[matthurd]

I've got everything out back together on the shaft, but the xv joint doesn't have any play in it anymore, it seems to be fully collapsed, but I can't fit it back in place under the truck, anyone have ideas?

 

[rb142]

If you have it jacked up under the suspension, try jacking under the frame so the diff will drop a bit and give a little more room to work. You can also pull the 2 or 3 bolts in the diff mounts to let it drop some more.

 

[matthurd]

i eventually got it back in. but now there's a new problem. from 0-45 the car drivers very smooth, 50-55 is crazy vibrations, around 60-65 it smooths out until i hit 80, at which point the vibrations are crazy again.

not sure what to do. i'm gonna turn the drive shaft over. i had marked it, but it got covered in grease, and when i wiped it, my marks were gone with it. so there's a 50/50 chance i didn't put the shaft back in the exact way it came out. if that doesn't fix it i have no idea what went wrong.

 

[mhersh2356]

You can hold the ball bearings in place with some grease. Use a good sticky grease, like wheel bearing or any similar type will work. This will allow them to stick in place while you finish up.

 

[masospaghetti]

Finding a boot replacement kit for the Mountaineer was tougher. First I had to dig up a part number. Then I had to find a store that had that kit as an item they could order. Wasn't in stock, just the complete joints, so they took the boot parts from a full joint kit and ordered a boot kit to replace the parts they sold me. Otherwise it would have taken a week or more. Very nice when a parts vendor will do whatever it takes to help.

I know this is an old thread, but I am trying to find this boot part number for the exact same reason. Do you have the boot part number?

My backup plan was to order one of these cheap SKP CV kits ($27 on Rockauto) and just use the boot, but that seems like a waste (and I'm guessing that SKP boot is probably not going to be great quality).

 

[1998rollover]

I know this is an old thread, but I am trying to find this boot part number for the exact same reason. Do you have the boot part number?

My backup plan was to order one of these cheap SKP CV kits ($27 on Rockauto) and just use the boot, but that seems like a waste (and I'm guessing that SKP boot is probably not going to be great quality).

Nope. No idea what the boot kit part number is for the CV joint on the rear of the front drive shaft for an AWD Explorer or Mountaineer. O'Reilly, NAPA, or Autozone may be able to look it up, if they still can order those parts separately.
Unless you can verify that the boot has failed recently and the joint has not been subjected to water or a lot of dust intrusion, it's better to replace the whole joint. If you do replace the boot you absolutely want to remove, clean and inspect the joint parts for wear, corrosion etc. I got lucky on my Mountaineer, but at least it wasn't all rusty like the one on the 2004 Dakota I had.

 

[masospaghetti]

The boot on mine is still intact, but I assume its original (the CV has "Spicer" engraved on it so I assume its original). I would rather replace the boot now before it makes the joint fail.

 

[koda2000]

If you have 252,000 miles on the original front driveshaft CV joint I would not bother going through the hassle of trying to clean and re-lube the joint or replacing the boot. It's not terribly difficult to replace the joint and a new one will come with a new boot and new grease.

I installed a new joint in our 2000 Mountaineer AWD a few years back. I used a Dorman replacement. Never had any trouble with it or the boot. What typically ruins any CV joint is that the boot gets torn, then all the grease get's flung out and dirt and water get in. This is what happened to mine at around 170K. At your 252K that joint doesn't owe you anything. You can wait until it goes bad or just replace it as part of preventative maintenance. I'd also suggest you replace the u-joint while the shaft is out.