Was curious how to drain the front diff on my 88.I figure It's time to freshen the oil .Are the CV shafts easy to disassemble?Need to replace a boot on mine brfore she blows.One more query:Any rear disc brakes out there for these trucks?

 

As I recall I simply pumped out the oil from my front diff.

Yesterday I removed the CV-style driveshaft and found the rear CV joint was sticking. Upon disassembly it turned out that there were grooves worn in all the ball tracks.

The boot looks okay though.

I ordered a replacement driveshaft, but I'll hang on to the pieces for a few more days in case you need a replacement boot. I don't know that these are still available. I was going to toss mine in the trash this afternoon so it might be your lucky day.

 

I got the a new boot. EMPI makes them. I have never disassembled a cv joint before.Dont know if I need any special tools or skills.Did you pump the oil out of the filler plug on the front?

 

I have an 88 with a Dana 28 front axle. Yep, I had to pump the old gear oil out.
Several places offer boots for them, though. EMPI--as admiralturbo posted--as well as GKN, Beck-Arnley World Parts, Dorman, and Precision.

Finding a replacement boot should be pretty easy, actually--especially since plilikoi has offered to save you one!

 

For a disc brake conversion for your 88, you might wish to check with Baer Brake Systems @ 602-233-1411; Speedway Engineering @ 818-362-5865; Strange Engineering @ 847-663-1701; or Wilwood Engineering @ 805-388-1188. Strange Engineering has a great deal of componentry for Ford applications; Wilwood offers some really powerful brake conversions and parts. Speedway has a LOT of Ford parts--but most of their products are for car applications (still, hopefully, it couldn't hurt to check with them).

Good luck on your brake search--and installation!

 

Good deal.

You'll need a new metal band clamp as you have to break the old one off. Once the clamp is off you pry off the outer plastic shround with a large, blunt screwdriver (there are four long tabs arranged around the edge). Once the plastic shroud is off you'll be able to peel back the rubber. This will expose a greasy mess.

First you need to remove a circular clip that runs around the inside of the "goblet". You can pry this out with a pointed screwdriver. It's hard to see this clip with all the grease and you need to push the shaft into the "goblet" to get at the clip. Once that clip is out you can slide the main shaft out of the "goblet". My driveshaft had weights on the goblets, but not on the main shaft. Just to be safe I'd scribe the goblet and shaft to be sure they come together in the same position.

Then you remove a circlip from the end of the shaft that holds on the inner ball race. Remove the inner race, ***** and ball housing. Then you'll see a plate that sits on top of a spring. These just shake out. Clean everything up, reassemble, pack with new (I'm guessing about 5 oz.) CV grease and reassemble.

I found that the front CV was in great shape, but the rear CV was in bad shape. I assume (n=1) that the rear CV joint always takes the brunt of the wear.

Given my experience, I'd check your other CV joint by wobbling it around to ensure that its travel is smooth. Assuming that both your CV joints are currently okay, I'd suggest turning the shaft around so that the previous front CV joint is now at the rear. This way you'll likely get at least another 100,000 miles out of it.

Mine had 167,000 miles, but the rear CV joint was too far gone to consider swapping.

If you do disassemble both CV joints, be careful not to mix the components of each as they are matched in size.

 

My truck has 307,000 kilometers,original everthing.But it's real nice.Doesn't burn any oil,no howling axles or drive shafts and it only has some quarter rustBut I want to check it over to make sure it avoids faliure .the only thing is the 5 speed is a little wonky.Its a little tough going into 3rd and some times it leaves shift rails engaged when you pull the stick into neutral.

 

My truck has 307,000 kilometers,original everthing.But it's real nice.Doesn't burn any oil,no howling axles or drive shafts and it only has some quarter rustBut I want to check it over to make sure it avoids faliure .the only thing is the 5 speed is a little wonky.Its a little tough going into 3rd and some times it leaves shift rails engaged when you pull the stick into neutral.

But back to the CV shaft:It seems simple enough to take off and clean up. Did you get a socket on the 12 pt flange bolts cause mine are too rusted to loosen with a wrench.They are doused with Penetrating oil now.Maybe I can Heat them with the torch...Shouldnt damage any thing?
Thanks

 

Sorry, I thought you had the driveshaft out already. Getting those bolts out is the hardest part of the job.

I used a 12mm 12 point impact socket, http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/SUN-312ZUM.html, and it still wasn't easy. I thought the impact socket was going to bust before the bolts came off. I'd do two and then have to put the impact socket in a vice to straighten it up. Once they were started I ran them off with a Gear wrench.

The bolts had never come off before and had some kind of yellow thread locker on them.

 

With that many miles on the drive shaft or even half that many.I would think REAL HARD on replaceing it.The CV drive shafs are week piont in the drivetrain on a BII.
I would go with a u-joint one.You can get them at James Duff.com Mountian drive shaft.com and I'm sure there more.You also can get a local shop to biuld you one.JMO

 

[QUOTE=But back to the CV shaft:It seems simple enough to take off and clean up. Did you get a socket on the 12 pt flange bolts cause mine are too rusted to loosen with a wrench.They are doused with Penetrating oil now.Maybe I can Heat them with the torch...Shouldnt damage any thing?
Thanks [/QUOTE]

i had to used vice grips and a hammer before they let go......with that much wear i agree i would start looking for a new shaft. the u joints type are the only way to go. i had never heard of turning the shaft around to get more miles/kilometers out of the thing until the earlier post but makes sense if you don't go off road

 

It makes sense if you *do* go off road. I don't drive over rocks for the sake of driving over rocks, but I bought the Bronco II specifically to go off-road.

I've seen other CV joints that looked badly spalled. On my BII, however, the tracks on both CV joints looked polished and appeared to be wearing well. The problem was that the grooves on the rear joint had worn excessively deep. The front joint, however, looked as new as a used CV joint could look.

I'm awaiting delivery of a new driveshaft, but it occurred to me that I should have reversed the driveshaft at about 120,000 miles and I bet that would have extended its life at least 50%.

I think the BII stock driveshaft has given remarkably good service in its 167,000 *maintenance-free* mile life. U-joints are not without problems; I'll be very pleasantly surprised if the new driveshaft performs as well as the stock driveshaft.

 

where does the slip joint come into play with a u joint drive shaft since the cv shaft is bolted on both ends.and the slip joints are in the cv joints? New transfer case yoke or something?

 

Ah well. The CV joints allow in and out play to accommodate for flexing in the vehicle and concomitant changes in the distance between the tranny and axle flanges.

Despite all the bad-mouthing of the stock driveshaft, in my experience (and yours too, I guess) it's been very reliable and a pretty good design so long as you don't drive on top of boulders.

The U-joint drivehsafts have to have a slip joint built into them to allow for changes in length, +/-2" according to the place I'm buying mine from.

Did you test your CV joints to see whether they stick? All you need to do is roll the goblet around at different positions (i.e., pulled out or pushed into) the shaft and see whether it binds. If it doesn't bind it's probably still good. If yours is like mine, the rear will be bad and the front will be good. I'm really curious as to whether or not you observe the same.

 

i have broken like 5 cv joint types and one of those just crawling up a really steep hill.. as soon as i went to 31x 10 tires they started popping with under very little strain.....

what seems to be the trouble on my rig other than the cv being weak is due to thje angle of my shaft the rear boot wears out in no time and the cv joint gets grit and gunk in it and well you all know what happens soon after that....


im rollin on 33x12.50 swampers and i have broken only one u joint type mine has the slide/ spline type thing in the middle of the shaft to allow for flex and variation of distance between transfer case to rear end..

the u joint type that i broke was from doing something stupid. ( i had slid of in a wash with a stump on one side abig rock on the other and back side of a huge rut out front in a down pour ... i hammered the gas when i should have just backed out. the tires bit and popped the shaft and stripped a hub which left me stuck for the night..

the price is the same get the u joint type if you can find one and avoid all the future hassle