In lieu of a new boot, instead of applying CV grease, use a spray white lithium grease or possibly motorcycle chain lube. Both of these options will apply as a liquid, but quickly turn to a more solid grease, so there isn’t nearly as much loss to “fling”. I have used the former for a year an a half before I got rid of my car, applying once or twice a week.
Don?t try using the ?zipper? CV boot!
My 97 Celica has a torn CV joint boot. There was nothing that seemed to be wrong with the joint itself, other than the torn boot, so I figured that a ?split? CV joint boot was the way to go.
Bad idea! In the first place, the thing comes in not once piece that is split but instead TWO pieces. You have to glue one side and let it sit for at least an an hour. Then you tear off the old boot and clean it (which took the rest of a can of brake cleaner I found in the road in front of my house and all of the carburetor cleaner I had on hand and I still had to then get cleaned up and go buy more from Wal Mart). Then you regrease the CV joint with the grease they provide with the split boot.
Then you put the split boot over the CV joint ? without getting any grease on it! Yeah! Right! Like that?s gonna happen! Then after you have cleaned it of the grease you got on it putting it on, you glue it together and let it sit for an hour, preferably more.
Then you take the clamps they provide and clamp it to the big end of the CV joint. But this is a ?universal? boot, which means it universally does not fit ANYTHING. The big end was at least ? inch too big to ever camp in place properly, so then you have to move it down to the next step and hope that fits. At this point I realized this thing was never ever going to work and abandoned the effort to use it.
As a result I was unable to enjoy the procedure for installing the parts you use to seal the small end. Which is even more unlikely to work than the way they seal the big end.
Look at it this way. The split boot costs $21.00-$25.00, not including shipping if you have to order it. If you decide to remove and dismantle the half axle and replace the boots (you would be really dumb to not replace both the inner and the outer boot while you had it off) the parts for that will cost you about the same.
BUT ? a whole new, rebuilt half-axle ready to install costs $65 including shipping and with no core charge. Are you going to go through all that spilt boot nonsense for a lousy $40?
I have not finished the job yet, since it started raining, but yanking the half-axle and replacing it looks to be far less trouble than wrestling with this Mickey Mouse Rube Goldburg infernal split boot contraption.
Agree, avoid this so-called “solution”. It was hooky 20 years ago when half-axles were expensive, now it’s just plain stupid. Spend the money for a new half-axle.