I just changed my driver's side CV boot, which had split. It is a messy job. If I were to do it again here is what I'd do (educational purposes only, don't sue me if this wrecks your car/life etc). Maybe someone finds this useful.
1. Make sure that you have:
- a hammer and a rubber mallet (bigger hammer is much better.)
- 1 genuine Nissan CV boot kit (cost ~ $120). I do NOT recommend the universal type. My universal lasted 6 months. The genuine one is about 3 times as thick and comes with circlips.
- Something to get the lug nuts off (e.g. 4 way)
- Jacks, jack stands and chocks
- Pliers for the split pin on the hub nut
- 30mm socket and 17mm socket (half inch drive on all these)
- 17mm spanner
- a nice long breaker bar
- an extension for the breaker bar (e.g. a pipe from a place like Nubco). I spent $25 or so and got a 1.5m long one after reading tales of people struggling. The hub nut came off really easy - it should when I could exert 4 times as much force as I could if it was just with the breaker bar alone.
- degreaser
- half of a 2 litre plastic milk bottle cut in half and dried, to use to store the cv joint and innards when you clean it.
- 50cm bit of wire to use to tie the disc and brakes to your suspension coil
- dykes and/or box cutters
- hack saw
- a roll of paper towel
- lots of hand cleaner
- bit of cardboard to put underneath the CV joint and something soft to sit on
- ragged bit of towel to put the ball bearings on
- back of a screwdriver to encourage the CV joint races to go the ways you want them.
2. Take off the wheel cover on the wheel (wheels should be aligned straight).
3. Take off the split pin on the hub nut with pliers.
4. Chock the rear wheels, but do not jack the car up yet.
5. Using the 30mm socket, the breaker bar and the extension pipe, crack the hub nut so that you can use a regular ratchet or your hands to get the hub nut off.
6. You may as well crack the lug nuts on the wheel now as well.
7. Jack the car up and put a jack stand under the driver's side sill, near the front wheel.
8. Remove the lug nuts and the wheel.
9. You may as well remove the hub nut at this point.
10. Undo the 17mm bolts behind the brakes. These are the only ones you need to undo to get the disk disk/calipers off, and you will find that you can lift off the disk and calipers as a single unit.
11. Lift up the disk and calipers, being careful to not harm the brake line. You don't need to remove the clip. Secure the disk/caliper unit with the 50cm of wire to a nice high part of the coil.
12. Using the 17mm socket and ratchet and the 17mm spanner, unscrew the two nuts on the bolts on the end of the strut.
13. Use the handle of your breaker bar to push the bit of the cv joint with the threads (what your hub nut was threaded on) through, and swivel the hub carrier (I think?) towards yourself, the only way it will go I think. You should now have good access to the CV joint.
14. Measure from a nice, easy to measure point on one side of the CV joint to the other, when the joint is in a straight line. A 12" C clamp would be great for this. I used one of the quick adjust clamps, and marked the position on the quick adjust length with a marker (being careful not to rotate the clamp bit). This will tell you how far to bang the CV joint back into place. (Do not do what I did and just "wing it", I didn't hit it hard enough, it popped out while it was near full lock, and I had to wait until morning to fix it while explaining what my car was doing in a no parking area.)
15. Cut around the CV boot (using dykes or box cutters) so that it will come off properly when you disengage the cv joint itself. It is probably just as good a time to use the hacksaw to cut off the two bands that secure the CV boot to either end, as these will need to come off too. This will be messy; get lots of paper towel.
Edit: doing this the second time (steps 15-19), If you can get the metal straps off the CV boot, you should be able to give the CV boot a few whacks with a mallet towards yourself so that it comes off, pull the end closest to you out, and just remove the remains of the CV boot towards yourself without having to cut anything (except maybe the metal straps).
16. You may as well use your dykes to longways cut down the boot to get it completely off.
17. Clean the CV joint with paper towel so that you can see what you are doing and not make yourself overly messy.
18. Clean the hub end of the CV joint with some paper towel if you haven't already - you are going to hold this between your knees.
19. Get a mallet. With your left hand holding the gearbox side of the CV joint, and the hub end of the CV joint steady between your knees, hammer the CV joint directly away from the axle (i.e. towards yourself) while making sure that there are no internals poking out where you are going to be hammering. With a few good whacks, it should come off.
20. Score the inner race, outer race and the CV joint itself in a line going from the centre out, so that you can line them up when you put them back in. Not sure if it matters on this car but I think on some cars it does. I used the edge of a file.
21. Now to clean the CV joint. You want to do this otherwise you may have to replace the CV joint later because grit has gotten in there. You will also find out if it needs replacement; better to do the job once. Remove the circular cross sectioned circlip.
22a. I used the back of a screwdriver to encourage the races to go either side until I could get a bearing out. Get all the bearings out, and you will eventually be able to get the races out. I did not bother to separate them - you can clean them adequately without doing this. Use lots of paper towel, and finish up with degreaser. (Or what I did the next time - used an icecream container full of turps, petrol would work just as well).
22b. Do the same paper towel + degreaser approach to the CV joint, uh bowl or whatever you call it.
22c. Clean the ball bearings and put them on the towel so that they don't get scored on the ground.
22d. Inspect everything to make sure that things are nice and smooth, not gouged etc. If things look wrong, get a new CV joint.
23. Ok, put it back together carefully the same way you got the bearings and races out.
24. Now you are ready to put the new CV boot on the axle. So do that, and secure it with the appropriate band. Ensure that the circlips are on the axle, and that it has been cleaned.
25. Make sure that the CV joint is aligned straight, so the ball bearings are parallel to the plane of the top of the CV joint.
26. Use all the grease you can on the CV joint, and the remainder in the boot.
27. Screw on the hub nut partially to the CV joint, so that you can use the nut with the socket on it to bash with your hammer or mallet.
28. Put the second band on the boot, do not tighten yet.
29. Join the CV joint and axle, so that it slides in until the first circlip. At this point I attached the second band and tightened so that all the grease is contained within the boot.
30. Check that the axle is seated in the CV joint appropriately, and bash the socket with your hammer until the CV joint is back where it is supposed to be according to your measurement. I held the axle above the CV joint with my other hand so that it was not going too far into the gearbox. The axle is fairly massive compared to the CV joint - most of the energy of your hammer strikes will go in pushing the axle into the CV joint rather than harming the gearbox. Should not matter if you pull it out a bit - there is a bit of play.
31. Put everything back together in reverse order.
helpful links:
http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/20750-Replacing-CV-boot-or-gaiter-questions
