BlackSheepRebel
Senior Member
More proof I can never gamble. If there is a 50/50 chance of something going wrong...
As mentioned in a few other threads, I've leveled with the Bilstein 5100's and RC UCAs. One of the RC UCAs had a torn grease boot I didn't notice until after install when I greased it. Not calling RC, because there's a chance I blew it out... anything's possible in my garage. However, I just puffed up the boot and stopped. Same on the other side w/o any issues. Only way to replace that is replacing the ball joint (I guess) -- for now it's wrapped in self sealing tape to prevent a mess.
Onto the bigger issue... when I installed the 5100's everything looked fine, but got a clunk on first test drive. Thanks to this forum, figured out it was likely top nuts needing tightened a bit more. Took the risk and hit both sides with an impact for a few seconds, but couldn't let it rest. Reassembled the driver side to compare how many threads were exposed vs the impact-only side (turns out it was the same so I could have prevented this fiasco by calling it done).
After reassembling, the clunk was gone... but I noticed some grease slung around. My first thought was I'd let some drop from the upper ball joint, so cleaned it up and moved on. Next drive, same thing. Wait a minute? Again? Oh and it's black not red and tacky. Sure enough, cleaned it up and looked around and found a small gouge in my outer CV boot. Amazing luck. I must have got into it while prying the strut back into place.
Been watching videos, and when you search "torn CV boot" you get a lot of "replace the axle" videos which makes sense because they assume it's old. Being a new-ish truck, I'm trying to figure out if it's worth cheating a bit and just replacing the boot. I did an axle replacement with my Dad on his power wagon, but given my luck I'd like to avoid tearing thigns apart any more than necessary. Is something like this a good idea? Other easy ways to just replace the boot?
Thanks for any advice!
As mentioned in a few other threads, I've leveled with the Bilstein 5100's and RC UCAs. One of the RC UCAs had a torn grease boot I didn't notice until after install when I greased it. Not calling RC, because there's a chance I blew it out... anything's possible in my garage. However, I just puffed up the boot and stopped. Same on the other side w/o any issues. Only way to replace that is replacing the ball joint (I guess) -- for now it's wrapped in self sealing tape to prevent a mess.
Onto the bigger issue... when I installed the 5100's everything looked fine, but got a clunk on first test drive. Thanks to this forum, figured out it was likely top nuts needing tightened a bit more. Took the risk and hit both sides with an impact for a few seconds, but couldn't let it rest. Reassembled the driver side to compare how many threads were exposed vs the impact-only side (turns out it was the same so I could have prevented this fiasco by calling it done).
After reassembling, the clunk was gone... but I noticed some grease slung around. My first thought was I'd let some drop from the upper ball joint, so cleaned it up and moved on. Next drive, same thing. Wait a minute? Again? Oh and it's black not red and tacky. Sure enough, cleaned it up and looked around and found a small gouge in my outer CV boot. Amazing luck. I must have got into it while prying the strut back into place.
Been watching videos, and when you search "torn CV boot" you get a lot of "replace the axle" videos which makes sense because they assume it's old. Being a new-ish truck, I'm trying to figure out if it's worth cheating a bit and just replacing the boot. I did an axle replacement with my Dad on his power wagon, but given my luck I'd like to avoid tearing thigns apart any more than necessary. Is something like this a good idea? Other easy ways to just replace the boot?
How To Replace CV Boots - Easy to install on the car assembly in 15 minutes.
CV-Boot easy to install on the car assembly in less then 15 minutes. Universal Video Instruction about how to Replace CV Boots. Easy Boot cv-joint is an inve...
youtu.be
Thanks for any advice!