Rear Driveshaft Boot removal

[Dave Rothwell]

Hi All, I have a tiny pinprick hole in one of my rear drivshaft boots which weeps a smear of grease over time.  Must admit I have bodged it a couple of times with a tiny patch from a bicycle tire repair kit but really it needs changing.  I have checked out Tim Pollards excellent article in LF from way back when which tells me the tin can on the older type of driveshafts needs cutting of and then 'swaging back on' - if someone can explain that bit to me and who can do the 'swaging' I would be super grateful as always.  Many thanks Dave R (senior!!)

[Silver Machine]

On the advice of Red Line I replaced mine with 'stretchy boots' seems they work well on most Caterhams.  The 'stretchy boot' goes on from the diff end of the shaft and stretches over the can so no need to remove can. Mine have covered 12000 miles with no problems. Some folk say the profile of the 'stretchy boot' means that it rubs against itself but on my 1997 Supersport this has not been an issue. It took me about 3 hours to do the first side and about 90 mins on the second side. By all means email me if you would like further details.

[Bio]

Hi Dave

The older tin can style are a bit tricky ....you need to remove the drive shaft and then extract the complete joint from the drive shaft before cutting off the tin can and fitting and swaging the new can on. Worthwhile doing both boots on the drive shaft at the same time and fitting new drive shaft nylock nut.

I did mine a while ago.

John

[Dave Rothwell]

Many thanks for the reply John - Not being very techie what exactly does the 'swaging' involve.  Best regards,  daveR.

[Wrightpayne]

Imaging something resembling an open ended bean can. You have to push this into the cv joint, against the spring inside the joint and hammer the 10mm at the end to about 15 degrees all the way around the circumference. The cv joint has the same bevel so you're just hammering it onto that. I managed on my own but ideally a two person job. Not difficult just lots of things to hold all at once.

Hope that makes sense

Ian

[Dave Rothwell]

Many thanks Ian, I now get the picture, daveR

[Wrightpayne]

I have one of the cans I can photograph for you - I changed inners and outers whilst it was in bits, both of which have cans, though you only need to cut off one can to do both. IIRC you have to get the three pronged cv spider off the end of the drive shaft splines to fit the boot to the cv still assembled.

Send me a private message with your email and I'll send it through.

Regards

Ian

[Steve Cragg]

The other option which avoids any dismantling is to fit a split boot that you glue together. A little bit fiddly to get a good joint but once done seems as strong as a one piece boot.

Steve

[Silver Machine]

I fitted a split boot as an emergency (Le Mans ) several years ago. Took my time and it lasted for over 12 months. I found it better to fit the split boot further down the shaft before you remove the original. Doing this keeps your gluing away from the CV joint grease. These boots get a lot of bad press but work well as a temp fix if you glue them up correctly. Found cable ties as good if not better than the metal clips that came with the boot.