9000 Drivetrain
Removal

If your CV boots busted open, you need to take care of it right away as it will damage the cv joint further. The CV joint will be okay if you catch it quick. I usually check these at least twice a year (when rotating tires).

This is an easy repair job that can be done in the driveway in about an hour per side.

The first thing to do is loosen up the lugnuts before jacking up the car. If you don't do it now, you will need to press the brakes to loosen them up while the car is in the air!

Now unbolt and tie wrap the brake caliper to the coil. These are usually held on with loctight so you may need a long 1/2" breaker bar to loosen these up.

Now undue the tie-rod bolt. The tie-rod is stuck in the spindle so you must either hammer it out or use a pickle fork to force it out. Either way, you may want to buy an extra just in case you screw up and break the boot or damage the threads.

The spindle is almost ready to be pulled!

Remove the ABS wheel sensor. Sometimes this can be a little difficult as it tends to rust inside the hub. You probably should spray this with some penetrating oil the night before.

Now, unbolt the 3 ball-joint bolts, the 2 bolts on the strut, and loosen the clamp on the inner cv boot. The whole thing will now come right out of the car!

 

 

This probably only took 15 minutes, so let's move on to the fun stuff!