Replacing front CV joint on a Subey.
Step 1.
Crack the wheel stud nuts. Take out the split pin from the centre nut, and crack the nut.
Step 2.
Jack up Subey and throw something underneath the chassis rail - somewhere underneath the front door, so if Subey falls, it wont land on ya head. I have used a 35" Bogger tyre in the past, but on this day I couldn't be bothered walking 10 metres to go and grab it, so I just used a 13" Subey wheel, with two bricks and a bit of 40mm square RHS that was closer than the Bogger tyre. Once tyre is off the ground, undo the wheel nuts and take off the wheel. Put subey scissor jack all the way down until it is flat, and place underneath wheel/brake assembly.
Step 3.
Undo handbrake cable and retaining clip. Pull hand brake cable clear of hub assembly.
Undo clamp holding the handbrake cable further along - these are two small 8mm bolts.
Undo clamp holding the radius arm to the sway bar. 12mm bolt.
Undo the radius arm from the brake/wheel hub assembly. 17mm. Pull nuts and bolts out.
Undo big-end nut on the end of the axle.
Undo bottom brake caliper housing bolt. 12mm. Lift up. Take out outside disc brake.
Take hub off.
Undo two bolts holding the McPherson Strut on to the brake/wheel assembly. Both 14mm. Grab big screwdriver and hammer into split in the brake/wheel assembly that is like a clamp holding the strut on. As you hammer on the screwdriver it forces open the clamp and the strut should fall out. Give a bit of a wobbly and maybe some WD40 and will drop straight out.
Step 2.
Grab small-ish screwdriver or bit of 3 or 4mm rod. Even a chainsaw file will suffice! Holding screwdriver/file/rod on to the CV holding pin, whack with big hammer until it comes out. Might be easier if give it a squirt of WD-40 a day or two before hand.
Do this underneath the vehicle on the side that does not have the catyalytic converter. Will need to do this inside the engine bay on the side that does have the cat. (Is easier than taking it off). May need to take out spare tyre, and possibly undo the starter motor and/or accelerator and/or clutch cables if they are in the way.
Once the pin is out, and the strut is dropped, there should be enough room for you to be able to wriggle the double offset joint off the front diff
Put big nut onto the axle with a few turns of the thread. Grab a block of wood. Hold wood on to end of end. Hit block of wood with BIG hammer.
The outter axle should come out of the hub/brake assembly and should leave the bearings inside. However this wont always be the case. May need to then grab a bearing/wheel puller and pull the bearing off the CV.
Either way pull the entire CV out.
Old and new CV joint.
Step 3.
Yep. Its kinda buggered. Grab a new or exchange CV joint.
Step 4.
Replacement is pretty much the same.
Before starting grab two lengths of 50mm diameter pipe. One length is about an 1.5 inches and the second is about 4 inches in length. If you happen to have some bigger washers with an inside diameter of 50mm/2 inches, then all the better.
Throw some grease on to the CV and on to the inner bearings. Grab the CV and put roughly into position. Put the outer single CV end of the axle into the hub/brake assembly first. About 1/2 an inch of thread should be showing on the outter of the assembly. Grab the Subey outter hub washer and cone washer and put onto the end of the axle. Grab the big end nut and throw on as well. Grab big shifter and tighten. As you do up the nut, this will pull the axle in through the bearings. When the nut is up as far as it will go, undo the lot, and try your small 1.5 inch long by 2 inch / 50mm pipe, and then do up the nut. (Hopefully this is the correct length).
Eventually by using the small and the longer 3 or 4 inch length of pipe, the axle will come through all the way.
Check that it spins freely and feels nice and solid.
Step5.
Once this far, you can align the double offset CV end on to the front diff housing output shaft. Note that this will only go on one way. If the centre pin hole does not line up correctly, take the end of the cv off, rotate the axle 180 degrees and try again. This time it will line up. Grab the pin and whack back in. Manual says to throw it away and grab a newby, but I've never had any troubles yet using the existing pin. They have always stayed in there. May need to use a combination of screwdrivers, rod, chainsaw file etc to get it to go in correctly. Perhaps. A bit of grease will probably also help.
Step6.
Throw the hub back on. Drop the brakes and secure the calipers back into place.
Pu tthe hand brake cable back in to position, as well as the retaining clip and the clamp (8mm bolts) that is further on upstream. If screwdrive has fallen out the clamp/split in the brake/wheel assembly then whack it back in. Do up the scissor jack that is under the brake/hub/wheel assembly and align the strut to go back into the big gaping hole. Wiggle it a bit and/or WD40 will make things go easier. Whack in the two bolts that hold the strut in place.
Put in the two 17mm bolts that hold the brake/hub/wheel assembly on to the front radius arm. And then do up the clamp from the sway bar to the front radius arm.
Step7.
Whack on the washer, cone washer and big nut on to the end of the stub axle. Do up reasonably tight. Throw on the wheel and do up the stud nuts finger tight. Drop the vehicle and do up the stud nuts. Do up the big end nut real tight like --- there is some sort of a pre-tensioned torque rating that it is supposed to go to, but just do it up as tight as possible and stop when it aligns a hole through the axle. Whack in the split pin.
All finished.
Subey Page
