Continuous Velocity...

After a meticulous parts order and a lot of money spent, my parts arrived.

First on the agenda was the CV joints.  From what I've heard, and from what the service manual describes, these things may be a bit tough to handle.

As far as removing goes, mine came off like frosting from a cupcake!  Just hold the snap ring open and tap lightly with a hammer - off it goes.  I then did some cleaning and slid the new rubber CV boot in the proper orientation onto the axle and tightly secured its strap.

For curiosity's sake I took the old CV joint apart to see where the wear points are.  As you can see in the photos, the chrome balls wear a groove into the housing and carrier journals.  The importance of regular maintenance with fresh grease and a secure CV boot cannot be over-emphasized.

These joints were loose with rotational play and also play along the axis of the axle.  I never heard any "clicking" like you'd normally expect but under severe load conditions this would certainly be a failure point.

Then I was ready for the new CV.  Um... not so fast.  Yes, I greased the axle splines first, and yes the CV splines too, but I could only get the CV to slide 3/4 of the way onto the axle splines even with the help of a plastic hammer.  I guess I was fooled by the old CVs coming off so easily.  The new ones require some persuasion.  A tall hydraulic press will be necessary here, but if all else fails you can retain the help of a local machine shop.  My press needed some creative setup but did the job.

With the new CVs in place, grease applied (2-packs per joint), and the outer-half of the boots secured with a strap, the axles were ready to re-install.  Not a bad project after all.