AltimaBlues

By 110K miles, my 1998 Altima outer CV boots both had ripped completely around one of the folds, leaking grease. The left outer boot apparently ripped sometime earlier than the right, which looked more recent.

Surprisingly, the inner boots seemed to be in good shape, as did the shaft seals, but, they were replaced anyway since I had everything disassembled.

Parts suppliers will sell the rebuilt drive shafts ready to install for around $70 each. I decided to do everything myself. Bottom line, I didn't save any money.

One problem: Following the Hayne's manual, I separated the control arm from the steering knuckle. Haynes says grease the picklefork to protect the dust boot. HA! That is easier said than done. Ironically, the picture in the Haynes manual shows a dust cover clearly ripped wide open.

No one I could find, not even Nissan, will sell the boots separately. They want you to buy the whole control arm assembly for somehting around $90. Not a good solution for a boot that ought to cost less than $5! I ended up using some self-fusing silicone tape from Radio Shack to repair the dust boots, and a hobby suringe with plastic attachment, to put grease back inside the boot.

Anyone have any suggestions about how to do this without destroying the dust boot?

smj999smj

I usually just take the nut off and give a big "whack" with a hammer to break it loose. The other option is to tack the horseshoe clip off the brake hose to gain a little slack, then remove the two bolts that attach the strut to the top of the knuckle. If you have stock struts, alignment is not an issue. If you have aftermarket struts with eccentric bolts, you'll need to re-align.