F-22 Raptor SHO
New Member
Well, after reading as much in the archives as I could get my hands on and getting input from emerald93 and rangerj (yea ranger, its been that long before I did the job), I finally replaced my axle shafts.
When I bought the car last September, I saw that both cv boots were wide open (read, cut completely in half). I used that as a negotiation point and got the car cheap. The axles were "wet" with a bit of grease, but still open to the elements. (In AZ, that means alot of cinders and dirt). No clicking or clunking was present, but it was something on my mind, so I bought the complete axle assembly and was looking for someone to help me do the work as I had never done this before.
Forum posts scared me to death when they said CV's could fail catastrophically at any moment if the boot was "dry" and you were lucky if you could get 1000 miles on a dry cv. Hmm, I doubt that, but I should get it done right? Well, after 11,000 miles of driving on these boots, I finally replaced them. Motivating factor? Well, the inner boots were starting to leak and the grease was getting on my exhaust.
Not a bad job. Scott's references to his procedure were no longer in the archives, but his autozone procedure recomendation made it seem simple. Here are some tips you might find useful if you ever do this yourself as it is fairly simple albeit time consuming
1: Must have tools include a 2 x 2, 2 x 4 or a long pry bar, and a seal puller.
2: Before you start, make sure you have a new output shaft seal for the tranny, 2 new 18 mm bolts and steel lock nuts as you should not reused either of these parts. Believe it or not a new seal is 2.99 at autozone, buy 2 of them as you might bend one during installation.
3: when puting the new MTX seal in, pause for a moment to look at your archilles heel of your SHO which is the diff pin...you can see it when you take out the drivers axle. touch it, pray over it, say nice things to it, whatever, just remember its location as you want it to remain there as long as you own the car.
4: As many always ask, what do I disconnet to get that spindle out of the way: after taking off your tire, there are only 2 nuts to remove to get the axle out. autozones procedure shows you, but note: you do not have to take the ball joint apart nor the front sway bar, just the axle nut in the center of the wheel, and the 18 mm bolt next to the abs sensor. thats it....nothing more....piece of cake....(thanks Paul aka emerald 93)
5: go to home depot and for 1.50 you can get a piece of pvc to tap the new seal in perfectly.
It took me probably 4 hours to do the job as I drove to the parts store a couple times and was pretty intimidated by the project. I tend to take my time when I am intimidated.
When I bought the car last September, I saw that both cv boots were wide open (read, cut completely in half). I used that as a negotiation point and got the car cheap. The axles were "wet" with a bit of grease, but still open to the elements. (In AZ, that means alot of cinders and dirt). No clicking or clunking was present, but it was something on my mind, so I bought the complete axle assembly and was looking for someone to help me do the work as I had never done this before.
Forum posts scared me to death when they said CV's could fail catastrophically at any moment if the boot was "dry" and you were lucky if you could get 1000 miles on a dry cv. Hmm, I doubt that, but I should get it done right? Well, after 11,000 miles of driving on these boots, I finally replaced them. Motivating factor? Well, the inner boots were starting to leak and the grease was getting on my exhaust.
Not a bad job. Scott's references to his procedure were no longer in the archives, but his autozone procedure recomendation made it seem simple. Here are some tips you might find useful if you ever do this yourself as it is fairly simple albeit time consuming
1: Must have tools include a 2 x 2, 2 x 4 or a long pry bar, and a seal puller.
2: Before you start, make sure you have a new output shaft seal for the tranny, 2 new 18 mm bolts and steel lock nuts as you should not reused either of these parts. Believe it or not a new seal is 2.99 at autozone, buy 2 of them as you might bend one during installation.
3: when puting the new MTX seal in, pause for a moment to look at your archilles heel of your SHO which is the diff pin...you can see it when you take out the drivers axle. touch it, pray over it, say nice things to it, whatever, just remember its location as you want it to remain there as long as you own the car.
4: As many always ask, what do I disconnet to get that spindle out of the way: after taking off your tire, there are only 2 nuts to remove to get the axle out. autozones procedure shows you, but note: you do not have to take the ball joint apart nor the front sway bar, just the axle nut in the center of the wheel, and the 18 mm bolt next to the abs sensor. thats it....nothing more....piece of cake....(thanks Paul aka emerald 93)
5: go to home depot and for 1.50 you can get a piece of pvc to tap the new seal in perfectly.
It took me probably 4 hours to do the job as I drove to the parts store a couple times and was pretty intimidated by the project. I tend to take my time when I am intimidated.
And I had $200 in a new set of axels from Autozone... $230 total. 
