Good Evening all:

I've got a bit of a headscratcher. The car: 99.5 A2.8 quattro.

The problem: I'm replacing the front end this lovely holiday weekend (thank you, Blauparts kits!), and I'm replacing the outer CV boots, as they were both torn. No problems there; they went just as the book says they should. However, on the second joint (the driver side), something odd happened to the inner joint. It's "sticking" into certain positions; it does not move smoothly though the whole 360 degree range, it binds about 270 degrees though the rotation. It also does not move smoothly in and out; it seems like it's stuck in an "out" position.

Now, I can take the whole axle off the car and take the boot off, but if there's some way to pop the joint back into place with it still on the car? I assume I knocked it out of position when I pounded the outer CV joint back onto the shaft.

Any ideas are welcome!
Thanks!
-Red

PS: Is there anything nastier than CV grease? Seriously. 90W gear oil is bad, but that stuff must be made of the Devil's ****.

 

Anyone?

Turns out sourcing the 12-point (XZN, triple squares) has been a real pain in the ***, as the local Autozones don't seem to have them in stock. So, if anyone knows how to put the joint back together with it still on the car, I'd really love to know.

Thanks!
-Red

 

i know exactly what you're talking about, but i really can't give you any advice for it. the 12 point axle bolt is a pain to find a tool for, i eventually found a snap on truck and paid the 25 bucks for it.

for the axle... its going to be hard to wiggle it around, but if you just push on it and play with it til it pops back on, it should work. but i don't think that there's enough room. i would try wiggling it and twisting it back and forth while pushing and pulling, and theoretically it should reseat itself?

 

did you replace the joint or just the boot, the joint could be siezed, if it not you just line it up and pop it on with a good hit on the top. the 12 point can be found online or NAPA, and trust me its alot easier to pull the axle. also in my opinion it betting ht elong run to replace the whole axle, if the boot was torn the joint was exposed and probably damaged. if the joint fails at some point its usually about 90 for a new joint and alot of painful labour or a rebult axle for 70.

 

sounds like you had the same problem we did. You lost one of the ball bearings on the joint. No, it will not pop back into place, you will have to remove the shaft and disassemble the joint to fix it. We're having a lot of trouble with that last part, because we can't seem to get all the ***** in their races all at once. If anyone has some insight on this it would be appreciated.

 

FWIW I got my set of 12 point bits from www.germanautoparts.com for less than $15.