Prep for road-trip; CV Axle's 93 FWD ea82

[l75eya]

Taking Ben to Burning man this year (5,460 miles round trip direct there and back).

 

Took my 87 GL last year, this time it's Ben's turn.

 

Ben has always been very well maintained, engine-wise. Regular oil changes + tune-ups using all quality parts/fluids (NGK plugs wires, etc, mobil 1 oil + filters)

 

I also just went through his front end, new inner and outer tie rods (Never knew they were so easy to do...) ball joints, and struts.

 

Regular timing belt maint. (50k intervals. He's only had one replacement. His next will be after this trip. Bringing a set with me just in case.)

 

He has, however, never had any attention paid to his axles. He is FWD only and is about to hit 87k.

 

As far as I know, the axles are original and are starting to show their age.

Driver's side boot is split

Pass. side boot is split

Driver's side clicks on turns. There's also a regular interval slight tap noise coming from the driver's front that kinda sounds what it would be like if you had a rock stuck in the tread of your tire...

The noise it makes as it slaps the pavement? That's the noise I hear faintly coming from that area. Dunno if that's the CV, or brakes, though it doesn't change at all while braking.

 

*Anyway*

 

I have been doing some searching for awhile now and the two most relevant things I encountered are Jeszek's write-up for rebooting and extending CV life

( http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=118248 )

 

Awesome write-up

And that also led me to Ilexoak's guide on subaruXT.com about swapping the outers to opposite axle's that can be found here:

http://www.scifaith.com/clickers/

 

And that's what my post concerns;

 

It all makes sense in the way he describes how it works, and he had reports of his own axle's being fine up to 2 months after (no updates since. Btw I love parenthesis.)

I'm wondering if anybody else has any experience doing this type of thing personally.

 

I was originally trying to find some threads about rebuilding the original subaru axles that are on the car, but I couldn't come up with much, then I saw that and think that might just be the ticket. Money is pretty strapped because of the whole trip out to NV in itself and I'm trying to do something that will be pretty much full-proof yet at the same time cheap. This sounds like it could be what I do as all I would need to do is order some OEM boots, find the grease JesZek mentions, or an equivilant, and do the job.

 

Thoughts, opinions, experiences, advice for pulling the axles off? Never done that before. This car is my learning car and in the 2 years we've had it, I've done quite a bit of work to it, all of it helped along by THIS PLACE right here

 

Going to get these long drive punches I saw mentioned in another post on here from harbor freight (On sale now!) http://www.harborfreight.com/5-piece-long-drive-pin-punch-set-93111.html

 

word.

Edited July 6, 2012 by l75eya

[the sucker king]

(5,460 miles round trip direct there and back).

 

 

That mileage can't be right. Have fun! Never been there.

[the sucker king]

yeah you are right. That's a haul!

[l75eya]

yeah you are right. That's a haul!

 

hehe, yeah, it's quite a trip. It comes out to more though, as the ride into the desert from Gerlach, NV is about another 80 miles to and from, and any side-trips that will be made during the trip (for instance, hopped off 80 to go to chicago for some pizza last time) will add to the mileage.

 

I did this last year in my 87 GL which I had sat for *YEARS* and I had just bought and knew absolutely NOTHING about :-p

Needless to say, that was not smart, but luck was on our side and we had no issues on the trip. My water-pump bearings did explode about 2 days after I got back though.

[Numbchux]

My axle rebuild write-up:

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=99712

 

 

I have seen some extremely nasty OEM joints brought back to life with a good cleaning, fresh grease and a new boot (like the one pictured in the write-up, that saw 15k miles in my '88 XT6, and is now in my '89 XT6 which is being prepped for RallyX). I wouldn't bother with OEM stuff there, just costs more. Most Auto Parts stores (I frequent O'Reilly's lately) can sell you a CV Boot Kit, which includes boot, clamps, grease, and usually some misc hardware you might need to replace (snaprings, circlips, sometimes even a springpin). They're usually about $10 a piece (2 per axle, you'd need 4 to do the whole front end of your car)

 

 

I've never actively swapped axles from one side to the other. I try to avoid disassembling more than I have to (one side at a time), in case something goes wrong. But by the same token, there have been a few times when doing major projects, where I've replaced both axles simultaneously without giving any though to which side goes where (RX trans swap -> 25 spline axles, then 5-lug swap, and EJ knuckles/axles on my XT6s).

 

 

Anyway, I'd say you'll likely have excellent luck with a good cleaning and re-booting. Swapping axles from one side to the other is just some extra complication.

[Rust]

Bring a tub of grease with you. If the cv joints start to make some noise slap some grease on them to shut them up. Get rid of the crimp clamps on the boots and use hose clamps instead so you can service the boots on the road.

[l75eya]

I'll give that a shot before I tear into it at all. Order up some boots and clamps and then clean the hell out of them, re-grease and re-boot and see how it goes.

 

I've had success doing that before, but then again that was for a car being driven around locally.

 

There's a looong haul in the future for these axles lol

[Subaru_dude]

About 5 years ago I took a trip from here in E. TN to Golden Colorado, swung up to Missouri Valley, Iowa both there and back to see my dad (was working up there at the time). It was in an '87 GL 5spd 4wd. I lost feeling in my right thigh and it didn't come back for 2 weeks. Ever since then, if I sit for more than an hour I loose feeling in my right thigh. I would suggest better seats or at least a pillow for extra thigh support. Did you have any trouble with your seats on your first burning man trip?

[idosubaru]

Wayne's suggestions on flipping sides you found on subaruxt.com is a good one! I've known Wayne for a long time, he's been to my house before, he repaired one of my guitars, and ironically just talked to him on the phone yesterday! He's done it with %100 success so far, he swears by it. He's quite a good mechanic and has done some neat things like clean Subaru TPS sensors, repacked Subaru timing pulley bearings, reconditioned subaru air struts...he's good at figuring out stuff most mechanics don't even try. Anyway - his suggestion is definitely worth doing.

 

I've abused Subaru axles for decades so if you want to do this on the cheap I think I can offer some helpful experience.

 

If you don't drive in sandy or on roads where they dump really coarse stuff on the roads in the winter (in WV it's coarse coal crushings), Subaru axles can last a really long time with broken boots and even after they start clicking. i've put 50,000 miles (albeit mostly highway) on busted boot and clicking front CV's. i've put 100,000 miles on busted rear boots with no issues. When I lived in maryland I never once rebooted a rear axle, it wasn't worth it since i could run them 100,000 miles without issues. The stuff they put on the roads here in the mountains really gets up into the joints and chew them up so i have to be more careful now. I've never had an original OEM Subaru axle fail...even when I've subjected them to said nonsense.

 

On the beginning of a 3,000 mile or whatever long journey to CO the boots busted on my new axles because I let them sit too long and they dry rotted. I packed grease ocassionally to get me out there and back and by the time i got back they were vibrating and making noise really badly...like i had to avoid certain speeds or my rearview mirror would have fallen off or i would have damaged some lining in my brain LOL. anyway - i rebooted them when i got home and they run perfectly on my daily driver XT6. quited right up, no vibrations at all.

 

All that to say - if money is tight I would not hesitate at all to clean, grease, and reboot them and see what happens. At worst they're just going to make some noise, but in my experience actual failure is almost impossible.

 

*** Of course look for damage to the pieces as you're cleaning.

 

You can limp it around by stuffing grease into the joints for now, i've done that a bunch of times, but with it being summer and lots of heat and the grease does sling out really quick anyway, I'd just repair them properly and be done with it.

 

You could even try to "test" them by stuff a ton of fresh grease in the joints and working in and through the joint...maybe even with a needle fitting if you have one. Problem is you wont' be getting to all the joint, just the externally accessible parts - so not really thorough....but - if stuffing new grease in there helps your current issues that almost ensures that a proper clean and reboot is a good option.

 

Whatever you do - don't buy aftermarket axles, they suck. buy used Subaru axles and reboot them or go with MWE - but those are expensive.

 

Shawn sells a really nice tool for Subaru axle pins too:

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=127308&highlight=axle+tool

 

I bought one and it's nice. But of course for the cheap fix - a punch will do. Just dont' use one too small or it wedges into the pin inside the axle and can be unbelievably difficult to remove.

 

Going to get these long drive punches I saw mentioned in another post on here from harbor freight (On sale now!) http://www.harborfreight.com/5-piece-long-drive-pin-punch-set-93111.html

 

word.