Ok folks, this is a writeup / report on replacing the Gen II outer CV joint. As most of you know, the Toy service manual knows only an code for the cv and axle shaft assembly. Yet you can actually purchase only the outer CV as a replacement part. The CV is not designed to be pulled from the axle, not at least with your normal shop tools. The only way to remove the old joint is to tut it to pieces :-D As with any write up, I will not take any responsibility if you attempt this and fail miserably or kill your self in the process. Use safety gear and do not try to rush things, it's the best way to F**k things up. Start by removing the base of the shaft. Cut with a 1mm disc right behind the ABS ring. Take your time and keep the CV cocentric in relation to the axle shaft, this way your 100% sure to cut only the CV. As you can se, the base of the cup begins here right behind the ABS ring... Now cut the outer race and the bearing cage in three pieces. Make cuts at approx 120 degrees apart. Once you have removed the outer race and the ball cage, make three deep cuts to the inner race. Be careful not to cut through and harm the splines of the axle shaft. Be careful also nit to cut the C-clip which you can barely see at the tip of the shaft at this point. As most adept of you may noitice, I have cut the end of the axle shaft when I was removing the CV base. This is not an problem as long as the C-clip groove does not get damaged. Use a big puller to crack the inner race in pieces. You have weakened it with the thee cuts so it should break in to pieces. If you need to use big torque on the puller, you probably have too shallow cuts. Cover the inner race and puller wits a rag or something, because the inner race bits may fly with high energy. The freed axle shaft. Keep the C-clip which is on the groove, because it is likely a better quality one than the one which comes with the replacement CV... Cut an opening to the grease pack which comes with the CV. Squeeze 50% of the contents to the center of the inner race, so the grease fills the joint. You can slide the cv on to the axle shaft splines to help the filling process. The grease should squeeze through all around when you do this. Before installing the joint, place the cv boot on to the shaft first. Then install the C-clip to the groove. You can help it stay centered by putting a dab of the CV grease on the groove. It is essential that the C-clip is centered in relation to the axle shaft, otherwise you will have a hard time. Squeeze the rest of the grease on to the CV and slide it in to the axle. You may have to tap at the CV to get it to snap in to place. The click - sound is quite well audible when the CV locks in place. And yes, you need to trim the CV clamps, can't leave them flapping around like that. Your replacement CV may also have a divverent type of clamp ;-) This was the hard way to replace the outer CV, but here in Europe we don't really have the selection of ready built full axle shaft assemblies. Except right after I had changed the CV, I found a online shop which had the SKF made CV+axle combo on sale for 80€. The SKF CV was on sale for 55€. I think I still made a big save on the job because when done this way, you don't need to refill / replace the big €€€ trans oil which costs close to 20€/liter at the local Toyota shop here in Finland. If this was helpful to you folks out there, Your'e welcome
Nice pictures but stands to reason if the outer is bad that means u probably have +200k miles on the car which means the inner joints are not far behind. If that happens u wasted a lot of time and you will then have to buy the set which wastes the new outer. By good work anyway. A lot of work.
I'm barely knocking the 100k mile mark (157k km to be exact) First set of front wheel bearings and this CV have now been replaced. The CV boot had torn, otherwise nothing really wrong with it. We just get salt on roads during winter and that stuff goes everywhere. The joint had emptied out quite well from the grease and what was left, was pretty badly contaminated grease and this set me on the path to replace it now and not maybe 20k km's later. Although looking at the bits of the old CV, I really could have gotten away with just cleaning it and replacing the boot. It would have been as labor intensive and costlier path to take the axle shaft assembly out and clean the CV properly, grease it up etc... Not sure if this was the best approach, but it sure was fun
Thanks for this. I did very similar on a 2000 gen 1 with abs but I dremeled out the c clip (very carefully). Yours looks very similar.
Why does the CV joint have to be cut off? I read elsewhere (that's how I interpret Patrick Wong's comment) that the CV joint does not come off and you have to replace the gator by sliding it inward. But these pics show exactly the same C-clip holding the CV-joint in place as my Volvo or the Hyundai where I replaced a gator/boot just last week. Couple of whacks aimed outward on the CV-joint while the axle itself sits in a vice, and the C-clip will be forced to compress and the CV-joint will come off. (I use two heavy hammers so I can whack on both sides of the axle on the CV-joint at the same time). What am I missing? PS: (Prius failed APK/MOT of whatchamacallit in the US (yearly mandatory inspection) because of torn gator/boot on right driveshaft) Gator is ~15€, gator + CV joint = 40€ and for fixing the issue themselves, the Toyota dealer budgeted 115€ for part and 215€ for work, so I'll call them tomorrow to see if the 115 is for the complete axle, then I'll probably buy that (200k miles on my Prius, pretty much everything is original apart from 3 replacement front wheel bearings) PPS: also other issues: pitted brakelines in the back, rear pads and discs need replacing (yes we have rear discs ) rear-brake is sticky and headlights need a good polishing + coat or full replacement if that isn't good enough.
I stand corrected. Friggin' impossible to remove the CV joint. Hit it until my hands hurt, used a CV-joint puller with a torque wrench (1m/3ft long, >350Nm/250lb/ft and then I began to lift the workbench with father-in-law on it). Simply won't come off. Grinding it off it is... Now lets just hope I got the correct CV joint ordered... They seem to come in 23 and 24 teeth according to car-part sites. (inner teeth between axle and CV-joint, exactly the ones I cannot see and therefor cannot count. The teeth between CV-joint and wheelsuspension (26) and number of ABS-teeth (48) seem to be consistent.)
Bought a breakers front right axle (30€, ~35$) and it just passed the yearly inspection. Maybe I'll refurbish the old one with a new CV joint, but no rush.
