Hi All-

Has anybody managed to disassemble the outer CV joints on a 1st gen xB/xA or Toyota echo (all the same part)?

This is for a custom project (my electric xB) and I need to get the outer CV joints apart from the axle bars, so the normal "just go buy new axles" solution does not work here.

Worse comes to worse, I can buy two used sets of axles and destroy the bars to get the CV joints off of one, and destroy the CVs to get the bars out of the other one.

I have tried the "pipe trick" as seen on youtube and also purchased an actual outer CV joint puller, but neither of these are doing the trick.

Any thoughts or ideas welcome.

Thanks,

Brian H.

 

I confirmed that what I threatened which was to wreck the CV to get the shaft out, and wreck a shaft to get the CV off works, though it is painful and annoying in both cases.

For getting the axle bar out, If you take the CV boot off, clean most of the grease off, then you can take a cutoff wheel and chop the ball cage such taht you can pull out the ***** individually. Once you do this to several of the *****, the joint comes apart far enough you can cut the ball cage in half and take it out. Once it is out the joint falls apart.

For getting the joint off the axle bar in reusable condition, again I took the boot off and cleaned most of the grease off. Then I wrapped the joint in masking tape to keep grit out of it and cut off the axle bar with a cutoff wheel about 1/2" behind the joint. Once this is done, clean the grit away and remove the tape. You can then bend the joint far enough to pop the ***** out. Once the ***** are out, the joint falls apart.

In both cases you then need to get the CV inner race off of the shaft (or remainder of). This was really annoying. I ended up using a shop press to put just enough load on it that I could then tap the retaining clip in with a tiny chisel and hammer to get it started going back through and not have it pop back out again. It is impossible to get the clip off from the outside as it is down inside a shoulder in the race. Once the clip was started I could use the shop press to push the shaft out.

Looking at the inner race, the back of the retainer clip recess is square, not angled, so there is no way that these joints are designed to be removed under normal circumstances, as pulling will not compress the spring clip.

Argh.