2GN.ORG

Last Sunday, my son decided to go offroading (as some of you may know already).
During his time w/out pavement, one particular stump/tree took out the LCA, steering knuckle, and inner/outer tie rod on the driver's side (amongst other parts).

When we began pulling everything apart, I noticed that the axle had become separated at the inner boot, but w/out tearing the boot itself. It was loaded with green grease (ick! lol).

My question is: is the axle supposed to be able to separate like that once the boot is off? And, can this be fixed with just a new boot?
Or, did a retainer ring or C clip somehow get through all that grease and get lost, cuz I'm not seeing any parts other than the 2 axle halves. Or, maybe something broke inside the tri-pot?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated - I'd hate for him to spend $50-100 dollars on a new part that could be repaired with a $10 boot.


Thanks,
Chuck

I believe they do just pull apart. I know from one of my Omnis you had to be careful pulling the knuckle out when separating the ball joint from the knuckle. Or it would pull the half shaft apart. Maybe that wasn't normal, but I never had an issue. As long as everything is assembled, there is no chance of it coming apart. Just be sure there are no roller pins that got loose, if they even use them anymore. As long as the balls are on the trunions, it all slides into the outer case, and eveything is lubed, I think it would be fine.

Ok, cool, we will try it with a new boot. Thanks, OD!

Yeah the axle will separate like that if it's not supported correctly, the FSM gives a few warnings about that in the axle section.

Not sure how much damage it does to the cv joint though, I would imagine it's fine if you repack with grease and get a new boot. A reman. axle is about $60 so it's not a huge deal if it is damaged.