I just put in CVJ remans in my 85.

I have put maybe 450 miles on them - including a 330 mile trip tonight. This one boot won't pop into place - the others popped into shape within 50 miles.

Any tips/tricks/ideas on how to get it to pop out into shape? Or should I just keep driving and wait (and stop poking at it ).

dd

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

You could take one of the clamps loose and carefully slip a screwdriver between the boot and the axle and let some air into it. That should let it pop out,someone else might know an easier way.I don't think it being out of shape will hurt anything,although it may interfere with the flow of oil in some way,but I don't think so.

I'd be inclined to just run it like that and forget it's under there.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Whoever clamped the ends of the boot,did it so that the small end is "Ahead of" the large end of the boot.(Kinda like the small end was "Clamped" with the
Half Shaft under Torsion.)
There's not just a Vacuum causing that effect.

I'd either return the Shaft.
Or release the deformity.
(Even if I had to end up putting another clamp on the boot!)

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

X2, you can see the misalignment in the boot by looking at the mold line on the bottom. There is twist on the rubber. I 2nd Matt L, that rubber boot will fail a lot faster than one that is on there correctly.

It would be fairly easy to remove the clamp and release the twist, then reclamp it with a similar clamp. You may also be able to twist the rubber boot with the clamp attached as it stands with a pipe wrench or something else without damaging the rubber

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Thanks for the opinions.

CVJ has a three year warranty (unlimited mileage) and I'll call them in the morning Monday and see what they want me to do. They are great to deal with and I think offer a great product that they behind.

I like the idea of twisting it a bit to straighten it out.

They arrived not crushed in, but crushed on install. I've done axle shafts from them before and had no issues, so I don't think there's any way I could have created this issue.

I really don't want to take the whole thing off and swap it :-)

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

If you run it like that, it will fail. Well, they're all going to fail, but this one will fail much more quickly.

Glad to hear you got it figured out. I must say ,that is a very clean under belly for a daily driver. It must be a pleasure working under there.

A few years ago one of the boots on a CVJ axle did that but it popped out on its own after driving awhile. The pressure differential idea is new to me and makes sense.

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
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