replacing rear and front axles on a 325is?

[GetSlideways]

Im looking into a 325is for sale, only catch is that it has a bad CV joint, the owner says he has rebuilt axles, front and rear, so i can replace them as a set when i and if i do buy the car and fix it. It runs and drives now but you can feel the slop when changing gears and driving it in general from the bad joint. Just wanted to ask anyone who may know how much trouble might that give me? I have access to a shop but its my step brothers and will probably have to pay him for labor in the end if i can't get it done myself.. I've taken rear ends apart to put in lowering springs on my friends mustang last season and it wasn't too much trouble. Anyone done this or have anything to say about doing it? if its a big enough pain ill try to lower the end price im paying for it a couple hundred or something.

Thanks in advance

[Nic01101011]

front axle wtf

[GetSlideways]

i apologize ahead of time for anything that doesnt make sense, i don't know very well what a CV joint is or much about these cars yet, this is what i was told by the guy i talked to so feel free to correct my lack of knowledge about this.

[Mike325]

It could be the CV joint in the rear, but there is no CV joints up front because the car is RWD. Did he say CV joint in the front too? Did you notice front end looseness? Maybe he meant the wheel bearings? Maybe he meant the U joints on the driveshaft, although there is only one, where the DS meets the diff.

[GetSlideways]

no he meant the cv joint in the rear, he just mentioned that he also bought a replacement for the front, there's nothing wrong with the current one but he just wanted to have two rebuilt ones put in as a set, i didn't really clarify that in the first posting, my bad. so yeah the only real issue is the rear axle.

[NC325iC]

cv joints are the universal joints which connect the drive wheels to the differential. they are attached to the drive axles.

what the guy has are 2 axles each with CV joints attached

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant-velocity_joint

[txtorquemade]

There are two half shafts, in the rear, both with an inner CV joing and an outer CV joint. The inner CV joints can be rebuild/replaced. The outer cannot, you must replace the entire half shaft.

What causes then to fail, often, is a torn or slipped boot, which allows dirt to invade the bearing and cause it to wear and eventually seize if you push it too far.

If your doing that job, might was well to RTABS, subframe bushings, wheel bearings and diff bushing all at once.