Kind of a long read, but maybe my difficulties can bring a chuckle or two.
A week or so ago I began to hear popping noise underneath our 97 Eddie Bauer 4wd. It wasn't loud. I only heard it when I was rolling slow. Wasn't transmitting a bump through the frame either. It was "pop"...."pop"...."pop"....only one pop per revolution of the wheels. I didn't suspect the CV shafts because it wasn't a clunkclunkclunk rattling the truck when I turn. We had some snow back in February and I rolled around in 4WH for about a week. No noise from the joints back then. Fast forward a few months and we have the afore mentioned popping noise. Thought it might be something wrapped up around a shaft, but it still didn't sound right. I got underneath and took a look. I found the inner boot on the right side was split and was folding up as it rolled around and popped at one spot in the rotation. I also found both shocks needed to be replaced, so I made plans to do some work. I watched YouTube videos, consulted the manual...I got this. I felt like Father ***** Sarducci in the movie Casper when he was called to do an excersism on the house. "I've watched all the videos, I've read the books. I feel very very confident I can do this." Then he comes out and his head is on backwards. More on that in a moment.
I ordered my parts from Rock Auto: both shafts, both shocks, sway bar links and bushings. Figured while I was there...
Parts came in Thursday. My Wife called me at work and said "You have a big heavy box on the porch. "
So, today my Son and I got under and changed everything out. This is where I come out with my head on backwards.
We do this in our driveway. Pea gravel driveway. It's where I do all my work. Nor the best for jacking vehicles, but we manage.
The right side almost fell out after all the bolts were out. Almost. I put a jack under the lowet control arm, lifted a little, out it came. Left side wasn't nearly as easy. It took lifting A LOT on that lower control arm and separating the upper control arm from the spindle before we could wrestle that ahaft out. Getting them back in was only " slightly" more difficult as they were new and not nearly as flexible. More jacking. Wrestle, wrestle, wrestle...
We got the left side back in and bolts snugged. Trying to put the right side back in, a freeze plug type cap popped out of the end of the new shaft and I couldn't get it back in. Lost most of the grease too. Thinking on my feet ( on my butt, really ) I came up with a plan. I cleaned off my hands, grabbed my phone and called my local NAPA. Friends in low places. Gotta love 'em. I ordered a tube of CV grease, gasket paper, and a few more cans of brake cleaner.
I squeezed grease into the back of the joint through the gaping three inch hole where the plug came from, I cleaned excess grease from the mating flanges with a rag soaked in brake cleaner, applied Permatex Ultra Gray to both sides and slipped in a square of gasket paper. I used a punch to locate the holes and snugged the bolts in. I trimmed the excess paper from the edges and continued working.
We finished up with swapping the shocks, bushings and sway bar links. Torqued all our bolts, tires back on, truck back on the ground. It only took us 4 hours.
Did I mention we got rained on? 3 times? Gotta watch those weather reports a little closer.
A week or so ago I began to hear popping noise underneath our 97 Eddie Bauer 4wd. It wasn't loud. I only heard it when I was rolling slow. Wasn't transmitting a bump through the frame either. It was "pop"...."pop"...."pop"....only one pop per revolution of the wheels. I didn't suspect the CV shafts because it wasn't a clunkclunkclunk rattling the truck when I turn. We had some snow back in February and I rolled around in 4WH for about a week. No noise from the joints back then. Fast forward a few months and we have the afore mentioned popping noise. Thought it might be something wrapped up around a shaft, but it still didn't sound right. I got underneath and took a look. I found the inner boot on the right side was split and was folding up as it rolled around and popped at one spot in the rotation. I also found both shocks needed to be replaced, so I made plans to do some work. I watched YouTube videos, consulted the manual...I got this. I felt like Father ***** Sarducci in the movie Casper when he was called to do an excersism on the house. "I've watched all the videos, I've read the books. I feel very very confident I can do this." Then he comes out and his head is on backwards. More on that in a moment.
I ordered my parts from Rock Auto: both shafts, both shocks, sway bar links and bushings. Figured while I was there...
Parts came in Thursday. My Wife called me at work and said "You have a big heavy box on the porch. "
So, today my Son and I got under and changed everything out. This is where I come out with my head on backwards.
We do this in our driveway. Pea gravel driveway. It's where I do all my work. Nor the best for jacking vehicles, but we manage.
The right side almost fell out after all the bolts were out. Almost. I put a jack under the lowet control arm, lifted a little, out it came. Left side wasn't nearly as easy. It took lifting A LOT on that lower control arm and separating the upper control arm from the spindle before we could wrestle that ahaft out. Getting them back in was only " slightly" more difficult as they were new and not nearly as flexible. More jacking. Wrestle, wrestle, wrestle...
We got the left side back in and bolts snugged. Trying to put the right side back in, a freeze plug type cap popped out of the end of the new shaft and I couldn't get it back in. Lost most of the grease too. Thinking on my feet ( on my butt, really ) I came up with a plan. I cleaned off my hands, grabbed my phone and called my local NAPA. Friends in low places. Gotta love 'em. I ordered a tube of CV grease, gasket paper, and a few more cans of brake cleaner.
I squeezed grease into the back of the joint through the gaping three inch hole where the plug came from, I cleaned excess grease from the mating flanges with a rag soaked in brake cleaner, applied Permatex Ultra Gray to both sides and slipped in a square of gasket paper. I used a punch to locate the holes and snugged the bolts in. I trimmed the excess paper from the edges and continued working.
We finished up with swapping the shocks, bushings and sway bar links. Torqued all our bolts, tires back on, truck back on the ground. It only took us 4 hours.
Did I mention we got rained on? 3 times? Gotta watch those weather reports a little closer.
