Vanagon ball joint tool

Most times, a little persuasion is necessary. Do not, at any time, use a hammer on the splined shaft or the outer race! This can damage either the splines or housing, and ruin your shaft or joint. If the joint appears to be stuck on the shaft, slide the boot open from the back side. Use a long punch and a hammer against the inner race to drive the entire joint off. Step 3 — Disassembly and cleaning of the CV Joint: To properly clean the joint, disassembly is necessary.

Start by pushing down on one side of the bearing cage ring and inner race. Once separated, the inner race, bearing cage and the ball bearings can be separated. While the location of the balls relative to the inner race is not incredibly important, you should not to mix components from one joint with another. The easiest way to avoid this problem is to only service on joint at a time. Once completely apart, wipe off as much of the old grease as possible with a rag or paper towels.

Thoroughly clean the joint in your choice of solvent. Kerosene works well, and I have also tried Simple Green. Be sure to remove all traces of the old grease in the process.

You may even need to use a fine wire brush to get the stubborn deposits off. If you used a petroleum-based solvent, dip the parts in hot, soapy water to remove the residue This is because that some grease formulas will break down when left in contact with solvent. Then rinse the parts under hot water. Immediately dry using compressed air or a clean cloth to prevent corrosion. Place the now clean parts on a clean surface. I like to place a paper towel over my workbench for this part.

There are a few things to watch out for when assembling the joint. The most critical issue is the alignment of the inner and outer race. On the left, you can see a front view of the joint. On the right is a view from the back of the joint. If you look closely, you can see the impact marks on the back of the inner race that were made from having to persuade the joint off the shaft with a punch and hammer.

The inner race also has large and small spaces between the ball bearing grooves. To assemble the joint correctly, make sure to align the thin spaces of the inner race with the wide spaces of the outer race. Be careful — You can do this wrong! In fact, the joint goes together easier when you are doing it the wrong way. If you assemble it the wrong way, the joint will bind when it tries to flex. Now the joint is ready to be installed back on the splined shaft.

If you are replacing the CV-Joint boots, slide those on first. You will want to push it down the shaft a ways, so you have easy access to the back of the joint. Slide the joint onto the shaft next, and secure it with the retaining ring. Notice the groove on the outside of the outer race — it is closest to the end of the shaft. Test the operation of the joint by swivelling the joint in various directions.

You should not feel any binding of the joint. Just be sure not to tilt the joint too far, or the ball bearings may fall out! Start packing the grease in from the front, one finger-full at a time. Be sure to fill all the open areas, and keep pressing in more grease until it starts oozing out the back.

A few minutes of heating with a propane torch helped loosen the bolts enough to remove them without any damage. Once the bolts are out, raise the upper control arm far enough to slide out the joint. Installing the new joint is even easier than removing the old one. Start by placing the new joint in the upper control arm and loosely installing the upper bolts.

Next, guide the shaft of the balljoint through the hole in the steering knuckle, and install the new nut on the joint. Tighten the nut securely. The Bentley manual specifies 80 ft-lbs of torque, but I was not able to sneak a torque wrench in the tight confines, so I guessed it. The upper screws get torqued to 44 ft-lbs. Skip to content. By Tom Carrington First, jack up and secure the Vanagon so that both front tires are off the ground.