outer CV removal - where is the circlip?

[bmdubya1198]

I just rebuilt the driver side axle on my 2000 R, which now has an M56 and an auto axle that came out of a '99 GLT. Same outer CV joint as j-dawg's car without the visible clip.

When I reinstalled it the first time, the joint came out after driving it about 20 feet. It takes some force to get the outer joint back onto the axle, and I had to hammer it down again since it didn't go all the way down the first time. Now the joint is flush with the bottom of the splines and after a couple pulls up and down the driveway the CV joint is still holding together. I used the new clip that was included in the Rein CV axle boot kit after having a hard time getting the original clip to go back on.

It seems like a pain, but it's actually much easier to just repair your original Volvo axle than to take a gamble with the junk aftermarket new/rebuilt axles floating around for these cars. I went through hell trying to remove a brand new Suretrack axle that got jammed halfway in my transmission... I'll never buy that brand again.

[gdog]

OK here is my experience:

As people posted above, the circlip is accessible in a recess and I just had to rotate the joint, I saw it right away when I went back to the job:

recess with circlip.jpeg

For removal of the outer CV, it wasn't going anywhere when I banged on it pretty hard without touching the circlip. So I put a screwdriver in there as cn90 describes in the tutorial, easily rotated it to hold the circlip wide, placed a drift on the star-shaped arm next to the recess and tapped on with a 3 lb hammer. 4 or 5 heavy taps and the joint was over the circlip and moving outward, it was really easy.

circlip open.JPG

To refill with grease, I held the CV joint in my hand and squirted about 75% of the 80 ml grease packet deep into that hole in the middle of the CV, where the axle shaft inserts. I basically squirted until the grease started to come back through the bearings, indicating the CV joint was full. I put the remaining small amount of grease just inside the new boot, and buttoned it up.

Total time spent with the axle on the bench was just under an hour, and I work slowly. Changing the boots is pretty easy. I was lucky, I didn't have to meticulously clean out the CV like you would with dirt contamination.

Thanks for posting this erik, this really helped me as I'm finally tackling this job!

Still, I spent probably 1.5 hours fighting that circlip on the outer CV w/o success. Finding a screwdriver (with just the right dimensions) to spread that circlip the correct amount proved evasive. Was about to give up, when I decided to make a tool for the job, and came up with this:



Note the width is 0.400" wide. The first one I tried was 0.350" wide and it didn't work. The height of the tool at the tip is about 0.150"; this allows you to access the tips of the clip with a sharp tip circlip pliers.

Even with this tool, still had to pound it pretty good w/hammer and steel drift.

Some other pics:

special tool #47 in place:


The magical (and essential) third hand:


And it's off:


Note relaxed circlip:


Clean out CV, repack w/grease from CV kit, new boot, and it's going back together! Thanks all!

Update: back together now. Note: don't need to spread the circlip when going back on; the axle is beveled on the end. Put axle in vice, get the CV started on correct spline (hopefully you marked it before taking it apart?!), and carefully hammer the CV onto the axle (make sure new boot and small clamp is on first!) until you can see the circlip collapsed into the groove. Put nut on end of CV to protect threads and use brass or hard nylon hammer.

[jreed]

Great pictures, very helpful! I've done this a couple of times on my axles but I never got a photo because it seems like the job requires 2 or 3 hands, plus a vise. I did take a picture of the copper drift I use to knock the CV joint off of the splined ends of the axles, after spreading the circlip with a pair of circlip pliers like what you described above. This drift is just a copper bar with square cross section, about 1cm on a side. It gets bent up and rough on the ends after use, so I take a file and clean it up right before using it the next time.

Copper drift for pounding out the CV joint from the splines on the axle