Classic Alfa Forums

Can someone run me through the procedure to do this? I'm only used to using the ones where you glue them together ,they seem very cheap on eBay ,suspiciously cheap! ( £3.25) Thanks

To change the inner boots simply undo the 6 drive shaft bolts then drop the shaft down so you can tap off the end cap . You’ll find a small circlip on the end of the shaft. Remove this and then tap the joint off the shaft. Remove the Old boot and replace with your new one. Btw if there’s any problems with your outer boots you’d replace them the same way . You can technically remove the outer joint but they’re a PITA so just attack from the inner end as it’s dead easy.

Thanks ,sounds easy enough ,good tip too about the outer, is it the one with the metal shroud thingy I need ? I can't believe they're only £3.25 plus 1.50 post!

That's the one. You may find the bolt holes don't quite line up. I enlarged the holes slightly to aid fitting last time I did one. As loo says makes sense to do both at once. Oh and watch out for the washer behind the joint on the inner.

Struggling with the tapping off bit! What size sledge hammer? On the inner ring? Or housing, possible to do on the car or should of removed it all? Don't fancy my chances of getting it back on far enough for circlip if I do get it off! Scratch that got it off , yes I see the holes don't quite line up ,

Nightmare trying get it back on, no where to swing hammer,the ball bearings falling out and dissaoearing down my crazy paving, then driveshaft wouldn't fit back on to disc! So Ive undone from strut ,now the struts 4 inches to long to get back in line to put 4 bolts in ! And I'm stuck ,can't remember how I put it back together when I had the engine out? Will I have to use spring compressors? I'm worried I put the CV housing in the wrong way round when putting the 6 bearings in ,and the wishbones aren't lowering enough? Or they made an alfasud 4x4 and I've got their struts, how the hell did I compress the strut to line up?

I usually mount the hub on the ball joints and then get the driveway bolts started. This then takes the weight of the shaft so it's one less thing to fight.
If you can get just one bolt started to bolt the strut to the job you can then usually pivot the hub and get the rest in one by one.
Alternatively as you said spring compressors and maybe a carefully positioned Jack to allow some compression of the strut.

Rsfruitbat

Simple job turned into a nightmare ! With all the bearings dropping out I had to clean the grease out then assemble and regrease but mustn't have greased enough. Hence the driveshaft joint locked and the hub wouldn't lower,but I didn't realise this till after I'd forced the hub down 4 inches with a bottle jack. All assembled but then the shaft wouldn't even turn! Jacked up so the shaft was level it turned very stiffly, so I sprayed motorcycle chain lube into the CV boot and it got a bit free er , test drive and no noises but the gear levers shaking a lot accelerating in 2 ND so I've buggered it up ,!! Damn these simple jobs!!!

That's a disaster, really annoying that it kept going wrong, simple tasks often bite you in the ass don't they.
The inner cv joint sounds like it's got something not quite right with it, be careful as you don't want it to lock up, break or destroy the gearbox with the vibrations.
A complete new inner cv joint may be the way forward.

That’s a shame as It sounds like you may have buggered the joint up when you “forced” it down it shouldn’t of needed to be forced

Yes it seems ok otherwise maybe I've just never noticed the gear lever jumping about before ,I knew I'd have trouble tapping the joint back on in situ, just no room then bearings all falling out.

Yes completely knackered whole car shakes to bits over 50mph ,what do I need eBay have some inner CV joints but looks nothing like what I need? Are all models the same ? Cheers

eBay tend to use generic images So don’t go off those.
I’d start by removing the shaft Again but take it completely off the car this time. Then I’d try to find the place where the joint locks up or goes stiff. To do this Just Move the joint through It’s full range and you’ll probably find it goes stiff In one place. As for replacement joints you’d be wise to use a Prop/ Driveshaft specialist and see if they can help. Just google “Propshaft in Stoke on trent” and see who pops up