CV joint re-grease

[Kershaw]

I wipe away everything at the surface and regrease it too. I suppose you could place the outer CV joint in a bucket of gas overnight to clean it and fully repack it, but I don't bother. The kits come with 2 bags of grease and I always use just 1. Obviously, ymmv and if you think the grease inside it looks like it's filled with gravel you do what you think is best.

I built myself a jig that I clamp to my work bench to do this. I just did another axle last Wednesday and I managed to pop it apart on the first tap with a brass hammer. Make sure you use brass to hit it apart, the brass will not damage the steel.

The joints aren't terribly hard to completely disassemble. I did it once to replace a broken cage. But I definitely don't think it's necessary for a reboot.

[E30andy]

I don't actually try to remove all the old grease.

Even if the car has been driven with a torn boot for an unknown amount of mileage? I would think you would want to clean out all the old grease and dirt that has accumulated while the boot was torn?

[nrubenstein]

Thanks for the quick replies nrubenstein!

One last question....what do you use to clean out the old grease? Brake clean and shop towels?

I don't actually try to remove all the old grease.

[E30andy]

Thanks for the quick replies nrubenstein!

One last question....what do you use to clean out the old grease? Brake clean and shop towels?

[nrubenstein]

Cool, sounds easy! Circlip easy to release? No special tool needed?

It's a pain in the ass fumbling around in there just because it's awkward and hard to see. You just need a standard circlip tool.

[E30andy]

Cool, sounds easy! Circlip easy to release? No special tool needed?

[nrubenstein]

So you can disassemble the joint partially? Is there a circling or something that needs to be undone to partially disassemble the joint?

Thx!!

You don't disassemble the joint at all. There is a circlip that holds the outer joint to the shaft. Release it and it slides off.

[E30andy]

Personally, I just scrape the excess old grease off and fill the boot with the fresh stuff. I would NOT fully disassemble the CV joint.

I've been doing this every couple years for the last 9 years and it works fine for me.

So you can disassemble the joint partially? Is there a circlip or something that needs to be undone to partially disassemble the joint?

Thx!!

[nrubenstein]

Personally, I just scrape the excess old grease off and fill the boot with the fresh stuff. I would NOT fully disassemble the CV joint.

I've been doing this every couple years for the last 9 years and it works fine for me.

[E30andy]

Hey Guys!

I'm slowly going through my 91 325ix sedan and am the point where I need to deal with my drivers side outer CV joint. The boot is torn so I removed the axle and want to clean and regrease the CV joint.

I haven't found any good how-to's so before I dive in I wanted some advice on any things to look out for while doing this. Some non-ix how-to's I've seen mention keeping the balls in a certain order and marking things before taking them apart. I'm wondering if it's that complicated?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thx!

Andy