I put torsion keys on the front of my 02 screw (big mistake rides horrible, cant wait for lift to take them off) and both of my cv boots are now tore. The alignment shop raised them up to where the front sat an inch higher than the rear even with add a leafs. I lowered them down about 2 inches but now I need to install new cv boots. I was just curious how hard these are to install and whether I should buy the boot or the whole assembly? I was leaning towards the whole assembly but I wanted to get your guys opinions first. Thanks.

 

i havent had to deal with this problem before, so hopefully someone else will chime in. but it seems to me that if there was enough strain to wear out the boots, then the joints probably arent far behind them. you have to remember with torsion lifts that yes, it is within the factory suspension travel, but it wasnt designed to stay that high up for very long. the cv's werent designed to be at that angle for prolonged periods of time. and yes, there are people that have done torsion lifts and havent had problems, yet.... but it seems to me you already have this figured out.

anyway, if you are willing to tackle the job, you would be better off in the long run to replace the whole assembly.

 

It's wiser to change out the whole cv axle. Once the boot tears, dirt and whatever gets in there with the grease and will eventually compromise the bearings. If I recall when I got my front cv's, they were about $80 each

 

the boots wear out without any suspension mods. Just from turning the wheel. depending on how badly torn your boots are you can get away with just replacing the boots. I did. I do not like aftermarket cv shafts because they ARE weaker than the OEM's. If you wheel your truck at all you can break aftermarkets easily. My buddy has a 92 tbi s10 blazer with a built 355 and he breaks the SHAFT on aftermarket joints.

When replacing boots on these trucks you have to disassemble the inner boot to do the outer boot. So you will need more clamps if replacing just the boot.

 

The inner boots are torn. Is there a special tool to take off the clamps?

 

just use a pair of side cutters to get the clamps off. Rip them off how ever you can they are not reuseable. To take apart the cv shaft there will be a very large clip that goes around the housing of the inner shaft that needs to be popped off in order disassemble the shaft to get the new boot on.

These cv's are super easy to get on and off. You don't even need to take a wheel off depending on your rims. If you can get the 36mm on the end of axle just spin that off. Take of the sway bar end link pins on both sides, push the sway bar up and take off the 6 (i think its 6) 12mm 12 point bolts on the other end and you can just slide it out.

 

I personally just got remaned cv's from oriellys... you cant beat 60$ a side with lifetime warranty. And if another boot breaks just take it back and get a whole new axle for free! Thats what I do.

And yes its 6-12mm inner bolts