[Damo]

Just inside the locking hub cover is a circlip on the end of the CV shaft. Anyone run without this circlip before???

For me this is the fiddly-est part of pulling the front end apart. Would it be a bad thing to leave it off all together? The problem I could see is that the shaft assembly might be able to slide back towards the centre far enough that the axle oil seal doesn't seal on the seat of the shaft any more.

[royce]

I have, not for a long time though, had no choice as the clip had gone bad so couldnt refit it

perhaps you could put it together and try and measure how far in the axle can slide and then see if you have enough seal surface on the axle for the seal to still work?
or like the toyota guys do, a tack on the splines centre end so it cant go further in? which may be a good idea so the CV cant be out of plain with the king pins and bind when turning?

but to answer your problem of the c-clip being hard to refit, I use some proper c-clip pliers made by snap on that keep the jaws parallel to each other so the clip is easy to deal with

[Damo]

royce wrote:

perhaps you could put it together and try and measure how far in the axle can slide and then see if you have enough seal surface on the axle for the seal to still work?

Not a bad idea. That will be pretty easy to do while I have the knuckle housing removed.

royce wrote:

or like the toyota guys do, a tack on the splines centre end so it cant go further in? which may be a good idea so the CV cant be out of plain with the king pins and bind when turning?

I had thought about doing this. It would create a weak spot on an already vunerable component though. I still might look into it just the same.

royce wrote:

but to answer your problem of the c-clip being hard to refit, I use some proper c-clip pliers made by snap on that keep the jaws parallel to each other so the clip is easy to deal with

I have a couple of pairs of circlip pliers but none like the ones you have. I'll have to look into that. Another alternative may be to replace the circlips with a different type eg. something like this:

[royce]

Vitaras have a circlip on the end of the stub and its an absolute pain in the ass to get on and off, mainly cause you really need to get the prongs through the clip with some poking out the other side, which is hard to do with it flush on the hub

thinking stupid thoughts now, cut down a bit of side gear to make a collar and glue it onto the right spot on the axle so it doesnt go in further

[Damo]

royce wrote:

thinking stupid thoughts now, cut down a bit of side gear to make a collar and glue it onto the right spot on the axle so it doesnt go in further

That might even work. I think the ARB centre I have might make this a little different to the standard setup though. I'll have a look tonight.

[suzukikid]

It's not that hard to get the clip back on if you have clip plyres!

Just put the bolt from the hub bit into the end of the axle and pull it out then put the clip on!

30seconds tops!

[royce]

suzukikid wrote:

30seconds tops!

takes you that long !!

it does get very hard when your on the side of a track in the rain and everything is covered in mud though

[suzukikid]

Like this but with mud!


But we didn't have cerclip plyres and had to use screw drivers! Lucky there was a mechanic with us!

[Damo]

I think I have a solution!!!

If I remember correctly there is a threaded hole in the end of the CV shaft. It would be pretty easy to screw a bolt in with a big washer that will prevent the shaft from moving in too far. It will move about 2mm more than with the circlip, I don't think that much is going to matter.

Toyotas use a bolt instead of a circlip aparantly.

[y0di]

only some tojo's do, mainly the IFS ones, all the solid axle ones have a circlip.