[rj308]

Hey guys! I'm doing some knuckle maintenance on my Jimny and to repack I want to clean out all of the old grease from the CV joints without removing the axles from them. For those of you that have done that, please tell me the best methods of getting all of the old factory grease out since it is probably not compatible with the synthetic grease I will be repacking with. Thanks, RJ

[fordem]

If I understand you correctly, you want to clean & regrease the birfield/CV joint without removing the half shafts from the axle??? I don't see how that could be possible.

[rj308]

fordem, thank you for your reply. You don't think that all of the grease can be removed with possibly solvent soaking and the blowing out with compressed air? If not, I suppose the only thing to do is repack the joint as well as possible with a CV joint grease that is compatible with the factory grease, which I believe is lithium based. I suppose that even if I am able to get all of the original grease out, it might be a real challenge getting the new grease into the joint through the tiny crevices. RJ

[fordem]

Have you ever disassembled & cleaned a Rzeppa style CV joint, not necessarily from a Jimny, from any vehicle that uses that style of CV joint? Most FWD cars use a Rzeppa for the outer joint, inner joints can be Rzeppa or tripod - the birfield/CV in a Jimny is the same joint, just without the protective rubber boot.

It's virtually impossible to get the old grease, along with whatever possible contaminants that may be in there, out, without completely disassembling the joint.

Think seriously about this - the "bell" of the joint is facing inwards, so into the axle housing - to get any sort of solvent in there, you're going to have to use some sort of a U shaped tube, you won't be able to see where you're spraying solvent, you won't be able to see where you're blowing air, you'll be spraying solvent & air into a "cup" whilst looking at the closed or bottom end of the cup, and hoping that it's going where you need it to go, even whilst you don't know where you need it to go, and then afterwards you're going to try to introduce a viscous grease under the same circumstances - and that is assuming there is space to get said U shaped tube in there, which I doubt there is.

If I assume the vehicle in question to be the 2017 Jimny in your profile, and also that there has been no contamination, I would say you're better off just leaving the joints "as is", on the other hand, if, when you open the knuckles there is evidence of contamination, then pull the axles, and do a proper job of cleaning, assessing, replacing if necessary, and repacking if you're reusing.

[rj308]

fordem, No. I have never disassembled and cleaned this type of joint before. That is precisely why I ask for advise about doing it on this forum. I have not started to clean any of the grease out yet. I will leave it as is and reinstall it. Thanks, RJ