CV Joint - Driveshaft

I wasn't expecting to have to get into these parts of the car just yet, but after the a frame failure, I suffered a punctured CV gaiter, and so I needed to open them up and see if all was OK inside.

As it turns out, once I opened up the cv gaiter, it was obvious that the tripode had broken and one of the wheels had come off with the needle bearings, in fact these are likely what punctured the cv gaiter itself when it happened. Before I get started, I must first say thanks to Tim Pollard who wrote this excellent PDF which was published in the LowFlying magazine, which I was not a member of way back in 2012, I have left it here for reference, and I won't go into detail too much on this page as his pdf is quite clear.

Firstly I had stripped the ears and shafts from the car as part of my A Frame replacement (see the build index for how to build it and do the steps in reverse). Once you have the shafts off the car, the joint is very easily stripped. First release the large clip using a set of pliers in the exact location shown in the photo (repeat this to do it back up).

(The shaft was quite attached to the bearings, and I decided that I didn't need to take off the bearing at this point, so I simply bolted the ear back to the bearing to make it easier to work with the shaft, no need to make more work than necessary here.)

Once open you should be able to pull it apart (mine was a little tight due to some burring probably from when the incident happened). You can then slide the entire gaiter/boot down a little by releasing the smaller clip using pliers as before (I think this clip is non reversible once done, so make sure you have the kit with the spare in it).

These pictures below show a normal CV joint with grease in it, this was from a non punctured joint (although a little less than it should have in it)

Unfortunately for me, the joint which had a punctured boot did not look like that, instead when I pulled it apart, one of the wheels had come off, the bearing needles were mixed in with the grease, and the spring was just a mess at the bottom (although not broken). Once I had undone the circlip, I used a tri puller to pull the broken tripod off the spline. I then cleaned the whole unit up ready to be refurbished.

In the end Caterham have sent me a new driveshaft to replace the entire shaft, however I intend to refurbish this just in case I need one in an emergency in the future. A friend of mine has a broken shaft, which I have removed the tripod off, ready to install on this shaft.

Before putting the tripod bearing on, slide on the new boot and make sure to also slide on the metal clip to secure the boot.

The new tripod didn't just slide on, instead I clamped the shaft in a vice and then used a socket which was big enough to go around the shaft, but small enough to not damage the bearings on the tripod, then hammered it on using a nylon hammer. Once on, I installed the circlip which came in the replacement cap. You can just see it in the photos below under all the new grease.

As for re-greasing the shaft, you get 2 packets with the cv boot kit. I greased the tripod bearing first, using my fingers I got it in all the joints, then I put the rest of the grease from that packet into the new CV boot. The other packet of grease went into the other metal flange, again I rubbed the grease all over, and checked that the spring was seated correctly in the flange.

Before joining the two parts together I made sure there was no grease on the outer metal and also on the rubber parts of the boot which was to sit around the flange. Using a vice to do this made it easier as then you could be very steady with joining together of the two parts.

Once all together, use the CV boot crimping tool to crimp the small metal clip on the shaft, and then use some pliers to tighten the larger on up (nipping it in the same place as you did to undo it originally).

For reference, after measuring the tripod bearing, this is the replacement part should you need to get one. 21 Teeth, 30.35mm roller diameter, 24mm height.GI1700I Tripode