[Asps91]

Hey guys,

Found a few threads in regards to the cv boot on jimny tailshaft a that appear to fall off after a while.

Mine has done the same. I have been having these driveline grinding and small shudders on light acceleration so I jumped under the car over the weekend to see if I could diagnose. While under there I noticed a fairly decent amount of play when I try and rotate the shaft. The u-joint seems fine. Only while looking into this further did I realise there is supposed to be a boot over the spline packed with grease. I think this is where the noise is coming from.

My question is should I bother repacking the joint with grease and a new boot if there is play? Or should I replace the whole shaft if there is movement?

[Mike57]

Perhaps you could post up a photo?

[Asps91]

I have a video as well. I will upload it to youtube.

[Mike57]

What year is your Jimny because my 2009 model does not have a boot over that joint. I am not sure how much movement there should be in that one but I know in mine there is no play at all. I will need to leave it to someone with some experience in this one I am afraid. The link to Youtube would be useful I think if you can get that up as well.

[Asps91]

http://youtu.be/MNAWQ3Hlylk

[Asps91]

Excuse the heavy breathing lol.

[Asps91]

Mike57 wrote:

What year is your Jimny because my 2009 model does not have a boot over that joint. I am not sure how much movement there should be in that one but I know in mine there is no play at all. I will need to leave it to someone with some experience in this one I am afraid. The link to Youtube would be useful I think if you can get that up as well.

Mines a 2001. Maybe suzuki realised it was a bad design and changed it up in the later models.

[Bugsta]

My 2008 model has (had) a boot. It is an internal cone. They break easily. I purchased a universal CV style boot. Although this style is completely external, it has lasted well and kept the grease in.

Ragarding the CV play. A little bit is normal. Assuming the play is in the CV and not the spline shaft, you can reduce the amount of play by replacing teh balls with larger ones. Be careful not to use ones that are too big. This will cause excessive friction and therefore heat and cause it to fail irrepairably.

[Asps91]

Thanks bugsta, I think the only way to really tell is to physically inspect the spline. Now I have something to keep me busy over the weekend.

[Bugsta]

Do you know how to disassemble it? I've done it a few times.

Oh, And I don't expect the play will be in the spline shaft. It is a tight non moving connection. The CV spider is held in place on the shaft with an external circlip.

The movement is all in the CV. And the 'slipping' is done between the balls and the channels of the outer Birfield. I believe this is where the wear happens.

In fact, on my original tail shaft, the balls had created a dent into the sides of channels, and this created a resistance, or sticking point for the balls which caused distortion in rotation which then broke the cage. I consider this birfield now useless.

[Asps91]

I have no clue on how to disassemble it. I'm thinking about pulling the shaft out and taking it down to a cv specialist to rebuild. It will probably just be cheaper to find one in decent condition and install that one with a aftermarket boot.

Do you think that's where the noises would be coming from?

[atari4x4]

not knowing a huge amount about the jimny's but is there another suzuki tailshaft with uni jounts at both ends that would be the right length? maybe front/ or rear out of a swb/lwb sierra maybe?

[Asps91]

Unfortunately not, a good way to solve the problem through my research is to do the sierra t- box conversion. This replaces the shitty jimny tailshaft with the wt sierra one.

[Bugsta]

I'll post up tomorrow perhaps how to get it apart.

[Asps91]

If you have time, that would be great. Much appreciated bugsta.

[Asps91]

I've decided to replace the tailshaft with another from the wreckers. Ill be pulling it apart tommorow to have a look.

[Bugsta]

Lock the shaft it in a vice with the CV end up.
Use a small flat blade screw driver to lever the end cap off, at multiple points around it.
You may be able to get it started, or perhaps completely off by raising the unit up and pulling it down hard so that the spline shaft hammers against the inside of the cap.
Clean some of the grease out so that you can see what you are doing.
Use external circlip pliers to remove the circlip from around the spline shaft.
Drop the outer birfield so the balls become free.
Remove the balls and cage.
Pull off the birfield.
If it is free enough, pull the spider off the spline shaft. If it is tight, careful hammering, or a puller might help you here.
If it is rusted or siezed on, spray something like WD40 around the splines and leave it for a while. Respray at intervals. This can take days. When my father had this kind of issue, he would simply spray it every time he walked past it while doing other things.

[Asps91]

Thanks bugsta. I'm going to give it a crack sometime today.

[Bugsta]

Once its apart, clean it all up, rebuild it clean without grease to see whats going on.

[Asps91]

So it turns out most if the noise in the rear seemed to be coming from the rear right wheel bearing. I have instead tackled this and have the driveshaft out and ready to receive a new bearing tommorow. The tailshaft cv appears to be making no noises and functions fine apart from a little bit of rotational free play in the joint. I'm just going to remove, clean, re-grease and re-boot it next weekend. I went and bought a rattle gun to lend a helping hand

[Bugsta]

Hope you have a compressor to drive it And a little ARB one won't do the job :O

Changing rear bearing is not an easy home job. You need a good press, or heat to get the old locking ring off and the new one on.

If your Jimny is ABS, I haven't been able to buy an ABS lock ring, so we've had to cut down the old one (for the tone ring) and weld the new non ABS type to it. Careful to seal it all up. I had oil seeping out for ages till the next time I needed a bearing done.

I've got a FFA and disc brake conversion kit ready to go in. Might get a start on that this week.

[Asps91]

I have a top notch compressor, have sprayed a few cars with it. Haha.

I have the shaft out ready to go. I'm going to pick up a bearing kit tommorow and have it pressed in by a mechanic. Taking the shaft out was easy....I'm just worried about putting the drum brake back together again.

[Bugsta]

I found the hardest parts wer getting the handbrake cable out, and the large return spring back on.

Did you take not of how all the brake shoes were placed?

[Asps91]

Took some photos but still freaking out. The trick to getting the handbrake cable out is slip a 12mm ring spanner over the prongs so they all compress at once.Turns a 15 Minute fiddle into a 5 second removal.

[atari4x4]

pull the drum off the other side for reference

[Bugsta]

Asps91 wrote:

Took some photos but still freaking out. The trick to getting the handbrake cable out is slip a 12mm ring spanner over the prongs so they all compress at once.Turns a 15 Minute fiddle into a 5 second removal.

Caww. Wish I had thawt about that one!

[Asps91]

So I'm a bit stuck, new bearing all pressed onto shaft and about to re-assemble but I'm stuck on the axle oil seal.

1. I do not remember taking an original one out, is it still there. I know the original one has a metal ring around the seal and I'm a little confused. (refer to picture)
2. Which way does it go on? I'm thinking the end with the exposed spring goes facing in and the flat bit faces out. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
3. Is it recommended to grease up the rubber seal before installation?

[Bugsta]

Asps91 wrote:

So I'm a bit stuck, new bearing all pressed onto shaft and about to re-assemble but I'm stuck on the axle oil seal.

1. I do not remember taking an original one out, is it still there. I know the original one has a metal ring around the seal and I'm a little confused. (refer to picture)

Looks odd but that ring with the holes in it must be the old seal

Quote:

2. Which way does it go on? I'm thinking the end with the exposed spring goes facing in and the flat bit faces out. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct

Quote:

3. Is it recommended to grease up the rubber seal before installation?

No. I used a bit of sealant on the mating surfaces because I had diff oil leakage issues previously.

[Asps91]

Can you shed any light onto questions 1 and 2 bugsta

[Bugsta]

Quotes fixed.