Hi I am rebuilding the front suspension and noticed that the outer cv boot has split (near side). Most recommendations seem to be to remove the driveshaft to do this. I have removed the 6 bolts for the inner CV joint and could not get the driveshaft out and one of the ball bearings dropped out - Arrgh. As it is the end of the day decided to stop before I broke anything else.

How is the driveshaft removed? Any advice would be helpful.

 

You don't actually need to remove the driveshaft, the outer CV joint comes off it if you pull it hard enough, I usually do this by loosening but not removing the hub nut, undo the bottom balljoint and the remove the the track rod end from the hub carrier then just give it a really good tug, the inertia of the strut, hub and disc usually overcomes the circlip on the driveshaft and hey presto the CV joint is removed, now you can just remove the loosened hub nut and tap the joint out with a soft drift.

hi i just bought a cv plastic cone and a stretchy cv boot ,all you do is put soapy water on cone,turn cv boot inside out put cone on end of cv and stretch it over no need to seperate cv joint handy if its stuck like mine was.

Is the driveshaft stuck in the bearing, or is it just that you haven't got enough 'elbow room' to withdraw the thing?

The press tool makes getting the joint out a lot easier.

Some of them are 'bonded' in with brown loctite bearing fit type stuff. Mine wasn't.

The drive shaft pressed out of the wheel bearing without any problem. It was unbolting the inner CV joint that has caused the problem and a ball bearing fell out of it. Is there a trick to removing the drive shaft from the gearbox end?  I would like to remove it now to ensure that the ball bearing goes back in correctly.

No trick, in all my years nothing has fallen out and would only do so by rotating at quite and angle (unless the cage is broken). Easy enough to pop back in though.

Problem solved - The main body of the CV joint had stuck to the gearbox flange (so when I tried to pull out the driveshaft the joint came apart and the ball fell out) hitting it with a hammer released it. Once out it was relatively easy to put the ball back.

Thanks for all answers