So a few years ago the old "truckster" decided to squeal like a banshee in the front end. A quick look at the CV joints confirmed the obvious. The boots were torn, the shocks were shot, and the lower ball joints were totally trashed. Although the Rodeo is a great reliable car, one of the worst jobs on these 4x4's is the CV joints and half shafts, because unlike many other vehicles of this type, the axle housing will need to be dropped. This is no small feat, and I don't blame many shops for charging around $1200 for this work, because it's downright nasty.
First thing was to get as much out of the way as possible. Although the OEM manual calls for only dropping the steering linkage, it's much better to drop the sway bar, and front skid plate, rear cross member, and lower valance. The hardest part is getting everything that is rusted in place to come loose. Nothing budges without a high torque 1/2" impact gun and lots of Kroil.
The old inner CV joint snap rings pop pretty easy once I found them under all the grease --
Right front is out --
Lots of sand and grit in there. This was the noisy one --
On to the left side. BTW these Rodeo's have auto loking hubs. More on that later --
Kudos to these Milwaukee metal blades, they made short work of the top shock absorber nuts. It was easier to cut them than to try to unscrew that mess of rust.
Here are all the parts that need to be removed in order to get the axle housing out -- this took all day yesterday.
The pitman arm needed to come loose as well; so that the axle housing could drop. Without a good puller, this job is futile on older rusted cars.
Glad I got that garage hoist, 'cause my back wasn't about to have me lift that housing for service on the workmate.
Here's the left axle shaft once it's removed from the tube.
Pressing the bearing off the shaft -- thank the Lord for the 20 ton HF press
Here's the new left axle and CV joint ready for installation; once all the seals and other parts arrive from Rock Auto.
Now on to the hubs and disc brakes. I bought new rotors for this car, because I don't want to EVER take that hub apart again. A simple snap ring holds the splined shaft in the hub. Note the trashed ball joint -- 17 years of service; not bad!!!
Autolocker being removed.
Retaining ring and wheel bearing locking rings need to be loosened and removed.
A special socket is required for the locking ring. Once the locking ring is removed, the outer wheel bearing pops free
Now to remove the hub from the brake disc. It needs to be set in a vise and separated slowly with a hammer and chisel, to force the hub off the disc
New disc is installed and I'm ready to reassemble the hub
first the wheel bearing is greased and seated, then the locking ring and retaining rings are installed.
The auto locker -- followed by the endcaps. I put the endcaps back on just to seal the lockers from dust. The caps will need to come off again later on to install the CV joint shaft and to reinstall the retaining rings on the end of the shaft.
So -- that's how far I've gotten -- the hubs and disks are rebuilt, and the axle housing and new CV joints are ready for installation once all the seals and parts show up next week. No restoration grade painting and prepping on this job. Just clean everything up and slam it back on the car.