R&R of tripod drive axles - Mr Obvious?

For years I've been changing out my drive axle assemblies the same way I did it on my cars that had CVs - you know - hold the damn thing like a barbell and try and get all the bolts, housing, and boot, to line up on the inboard end, and then while performing another balancing act to try and jam the upright into place. Well, tonight I just figured out how to make that a LOT easier, so, if this is common knowledge I apologize in advance for the waste of bandwidth....

Removal:
1. After removing all 12 CV nuts, remove the nut from the top pin and from the outside joint on the track bar. This will allow the upright to pivot on the nose bearing.

2. cut the zip ties from the boots and pull the drive axle boots several inches back from the joints.

3. Lift the A-arm off the top pin (a bungee helps to keep it up and out of the way); shove the drive axle hard against the inboard snubber with one hand while rotating the upright and inner joint to provide the required clearance. The axle, less the housings, should come right out. Now remove the housings.

Installation:

1. if replacing the boots, it's often a real bitch to get the new ones on. I tried wd-40, silicone grease, etc - but what really works is that red permatex assembly lube. STP would probably work real good too. I put a bunch on the boot and a bunch on the axle splines and it slipped right on. push both boots almost to the center.

2. Grease the tripods on the bench.

3. Put the snubber and spring and the outer snubber on their respective drive flanges. Then put the housings on dry. with no weight or other forces to interfere the tight tolerances don't cause nearly as many problems as when you are dealing with a whole axle assembly.

4. At this point it's easy to pack the housings with grease. If you use RTV between the housings and flanges it's much easier put a light coat on when dry. Even though there's a lot of tubing in the way, it's easier than trying to line everything up later while trying to keep the housings from falling off.

5. Install the axle by shoving the inner end in against the snubber while rotating the outer housing and upright into place. You can throw the track rod and upper a-arm back on to stabilize everything at this point.

6. Now pack the joint again, filling in the holes made when the axle was stuffed in.

7. Rotate the boots into position, and put the nuts on.


I'd never seen a procedure written for this in the 10 years or so of the FFU and Apexpeed.

To keep from having the parts wear in the same location try changing the Housings around and flipping them 180 degrees everytime you service them. Newer cars without much suspension travel seem to focus the wear in a small area of the race in the housing. I use some small spacers between the housings and the flanges and I move them from the drive side to the boot side and back and forth to also to move the wear spot around. :thumbsup:

Many thanks to Rick Kirchner for adding this procedure to the knowledge base some years ago.

I broke a half-shaft last week, and used this method to replace my shaft along with new tripod joints. I would have never come up with this scheme on my own.

Thanks Rick & thanks Apex Speed!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Kirchner

For years I've been changing out my drive axle assemblies the same way I did it on my cars that had CVs - you know - hold the damn thing like a barbell and try and get all the bolts, housing, and boot, to line up on the inboard end, and then while performing another balancing act to try and jam the upright into place. Well, tonight I just figured out how to make that a LOT easier, so, if this is common knowledge I apologize in advance for the waste of bandwidth....

Removal:
1. After removing all 12 CV nuts, remove the nut from the top pin and from the outside joint on the track bar. This will allow the upright to pivot on the nose bearing.

2. cut the zip ties from the boots and pull the drive axle boots several inches back from the joints.

3. Lift the A-arm off the top pin (a bungee helps to keep it up and out of the way); shove the drive axle hard against the inboard snubber with one hand while rotating the upright and inner joint to provide the required clearance. The axle, less the housings, should come right out. Now remove the housings.

Installation:

1. if replacing the boots, it's often a real bitch to get the new ones on. I tried wd-40, silicone grease, etc - but what really works is that red permatex assembly lube. STP would probably work real good too. I put a bunch on the boot and a bunch on the axle splines and it slipped right on. push both boots almost to the center.

2. Grease the tripods on the bench.

3. Put the snubber and spring and the outer snubber on their respective drive flanges. Then put the housings on dry. with no weight or other forces to interfere the tight tolerances don't cause nearly as many problems as when you are dealing with a whole axle assembly.

4. At this point it's easy to pack the housings with grease. If you use RTV between the housings and flanges it's much easier put a light coat on when dry. Even though there's a lot of tubing in the way, it's easier than trying to line everything up later while trying to keep the housings from falling off.

5. Install the axle by shoving the inner end in against the snubber while rotating the outer housing and upright into place. You can throw the track rod and upper a-arm back on to stabilize everything at this point.

6. Now pack the joint again, filling in the holes made when the axle was stuffed in.

7. Rotate the boots into position, and put the nuts on.


I'd never seen a procedure written for this in the 10 years or so of the FFU and Apexpeed.

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