AE90-92 CV boot replacement

[AE91Sprinter]

Right, im having to replace the CV boots on my sprinter, but im having some trouble, i was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction.
Ive gotten the spline of the shaft out of the hub, and the cv is hanging free. Now, ive heard these are solid shafts and you cant pull them to bits, so you have to take them out of the gearbox.

Now, i cant for the LIFE of me remove the shaft from the box - theres the outer boot, shaft, inner boot, tulip(?) then the gearbox seal. Is there a trick to it, because no amount prising/jamming/swearing will work.

Also, after all this is done... because the shaft is out, is it neccesary to replace both seals, or can you just pull the inner shaft out? (it feels like you can, but im not overly happy taking together the inner CV if i dont have to).

Before anyone says anything, yep, im completely broke, so i have to do this myself.

[sergei]

You could pry (using screwdriver) Inner CV boot off and from there it should come apart (there would be lots of grease). The inner cv shell could stay on the gearbox, this way you don't have to drain gearbox fluid, also there is less chance of damaging the oil seal. Now you will have a tripod looking thing covered in grease, on top it there should be circlip holding the inner cv (that tripod looking thing) onto the shaft, when you remove the circlip, the inner cv tripod should slide out (a few taps with copper/rubber/wood hammer on the shaft will help). Then you should be able to remove inner CV boot off the shaft, and then proceed to the outer CV boot. Make sure you wash/grease CVs when assembling back.

[Cahuna]

If you've got two people it is possible to remove the outer CV without removing the driveshaft:
* Take the driveshaft out of the hub (which you've already done)
* Remove the outer CV boot
* Get a friend to hold onto the driveshaft whilst you hit the CV to pop it off the driveshaft.
It takes a few well-directed hits to pop it off but isn't too difficult. This is the way I changed both CVs on my AE92.

As far as popping the driveshaft itself out, from memory there is a circlip that holds the driveshafts in the gearbox. If you pull straight outwards on the driveshaft you should notice a little freeplay, push the shaft right into the gearbox and pull sharply out and it should pop past the circlip. Otherwise try tapping it out by putting the end of a screwdriver against lip of the inner CV and hitting the screwdriver with a hammer.

[sergei]

Heh, it does not always work, I had once a starlet CV joint, so to take off the CV off shaft I've tried lots of different thing, and defently it would not come apart on the car, because it was on big wises, one side agains the wooden block while hitting other side with massive sledge hummer, at the end we had to grind it off the shaft (!!!!) to get it off...

[AE91Sprinter]

managed it I undid the inner boot and removed it that way; messy, but it worked well enough. Managed to clean it up and reassemble it, and its back in the car now. The inner boot had some weird grease in it... i think it was a botched up replacement shaft (had wreckers classic white paint writing '22' on it) anyway, but thats alright. The universals are a bit worn as it is, theres a bit of clunking on take off, but i just wanted to stop complete failure.

Going to do the other side if the rain eases off...

[sergei]

if grease is cream/beige colour that probably means it has got water in it....Stock grease when it is brand new is graphite/dark brown colour.

[AE91Sprinter]

Yep, im going to pull it back to bits and regrease it today, with luck. Car drives fine, but theres a few noises that i dont like + want to get to the bottom of... thanks for all the help so far people