Quote:
Originally Posted by Rebe
I was reading threads from time to time on the axles. What I didn't quite get was why you couldn't put oil back into them after replacing the boots? Seemed all was packing back with grease.
The other thing is how critical is it to be concerned if the boots are cracked or not? The original boots seem to be pretty heavy rubber material. If they start leaking, would you have like a good distance before they might gall? Just wanting to find out some basic info on them.
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If you have a cracked boot filled with oil then I'd be more worried about the cracks than I would be if they were refilled with oil.
However, cracking is a "sign" - they are nearly dead!
The biggest problem I see with filling axles with grease after they have been filled with oil is that unless they are the annular type that can be dismantled (well one side can) there is a possibility that grease and oil get mixed together...
...we then quickly come into the territory of whether solvents should be used to clean out the axles before putting grease in them. That I also find to be a bit dodgy.
The best way to tackle the problem of rebooting the canned axle ends is to follow the FSM - cut the can and then dismantle and reassemble the whole end. This goes well until you get to the stage where you have to crimp the ends of the new axle cans together => that is the trickiest and most frustrating job I have ever done on a W123.