It's not that bad. A little time consuming the first time you do it. But it's a damn good skill to have. Most people will tell you to just get some rebuilt half shafts from Autozone or NAPA. They're cheap, about $60 or so and sometimes have a lifetime warranty. However don't mistake that warranty for quality, they're just betting that you won't be keeping the car for too much longer after doing a CV replacement. America has an appetite for newer cars, so they're probably right 95% of the time.
You'll need a 30mm deep socket to remove the hubnuts and you should have a torque wrench when you put it back together. Most people's torque wrenches stop at 150 ft-lbs. I'm pretty sure the spec for the front hub nuts is over 190 ft-lbs. My torque wrench goes to 11. Er.... 250 ft-lbs. If you don't have a big torque wrench already, I suggest getting one that will do more than 150 ft-lbs. Comes in handy for suspension work.
OK, about those rebuilt halfshafts. Everybody on here is going to tell you to go with rebuilts from the zone or NAPA. Much better rebuilds can be had from
http://www.raxles.com
Mardi there uses only brand new outer joints (inner joints almost never fail. He'll use new if his cores are bad). He repacks with synthetic Amsoil grease and has a lifetime warranty of course. They aren't much more than NAPA or Autozone, although the shipping charges add up and there's turnaround time too. The quality is MUCH higher though. You won't have to worry about having to replace those halfshafts again unless you are the kind of guy that breaks axles on a track. Now here is where I
really go against convention. I just buy new outer joints from Mardi and new boots. The parts savings isn't much more than buying rebuilt halfshafts from him and I don't get the warranty. I do save a bit on shipping though. Then I rebuild my halfshafts myself and repack with Redline CV-2 grease. It's more time consuming this way and it can be quite messy dealing with all the grease. However when it's all done I have my personal satisfaction and I know I'm not going to have to worry about the joints again.
Why are Mardi's rebuilds with new outer joints so much better than Napa, autozone, wherever? Well the cheap rebuilders regrind the joints instead of using new parts. Lol, sometimes they don't even bother to do a regrind. Either way, there's no case hardening left on the joint and it's prone to failure. Plus the synthetic Amsoil grease (or the Redline CV-2 that I use
) Is MUCH higher quality than OEM.
A local Toyota dealer around here used to have a rebuilder they worked with. Napa/autozone quality rebuilds. After a while they stopped offering rebuilds because of quality issues so the only option through the dealer was $300 brand new OEM halfshafts. Lol, those used Toyotas last so long that the "lifetime" warranty on crap quality rebuilds was worthless and it was causing lots of ****** off customers for the dealership.
OK, you've heard my $.02. Now the masses are going to chime in and tell you to just get the NAPA shafts. Lol, a lot of those guys are far more respected than I am so after they've just about convinced you, at least give Mardi at Raxles a call and talk to him a bit. (888) 257-8192 or (800) 257-8192
Tell him Rick from San Juan Bautista sent you. Lol, it won't save you any money but he'll get a kick out of it.
