I was getting a vibration on the road around the 30 MPH mark. I suspected that the rear drive shaft was due for a rebuild. I usually have a drive-shaft company take care of my needs for custom drive-shafts and/or rebuilds. Lately, I have become weary of their work. I decided that I would tackle the job of rebuilding the rear double-cardon (or CV) drive shaft.
Here's how I did it:
Parts:
- U-Joint x2
- Ball Centering unit
- Bearing grease
Tools needed:
- Needle nose pliers
- U-Joint removal tool
- Hammer
11/16" socket
Quick pics of what will be rebuilt.
The first thing you want to do is tape
off any other u-joints that are still on the shaft. This will prevent a u-joint
cap from falling off and creating a nice needle bearing parade on the floor.
It's very frustrating to watch the needle bearings go flying
into oblivion after the cap smacks the ground, which I have done many times, out
of neglect on my part.
Start at the ending u-joint on the cv-shaft.
Remove the retaining clips holding the joint in place. There will only
be two at the end of the joint. The other two are held in place by the
ball centering unit.
The next thing to do is remove the first joint.
I use a u-joint tool I bought at harbor freight. A vise will work as
well and it would have come in handy if I had one in my garage.
Once the first cap is removed use the same
technique to remove the second cap. I insert a socket that is just big
enough to fit inside the u-joint cap housing. It makes the joint
removal process much easier and stabilizes the harbor freight tool.
When both end caps are removed on the first joint, it should be very easy to remove. Once removed you should come to this:
This is the ball-centering unit, also known as the "CV" in a double-cardon drive shaft.
Remove it gently, if it hasn’t already fallen out. You can then remove the centering spring and get to the next u-joint.
Now, go ahead and repeat the steps in the first
part and remove the 2nd u-joint. There will now be 4 retaining clips
that you must remove to get the 2nd joint out. Unless you run into a
problem like I did:
You should be able to easily get the 2nd u-joint
out. If you noticed in the above pictures, I had a little problem with
the lip of my drive shaft. I was able to use a torch to heat up the metal enough to remove the joint. Once removed, you should have an empty shaft waiting for new joints.
Always add grease to new joints. They are usually packed with just enough to keep the bearings from rusting while sitting on the shelf. Follow the steps in reverse order, installing the u-joints, ball centering unit, and joint clips.
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