How do you change subaru cv joints?

I have changed them on rwd cars before, but never front, and i was just wondering how you get them off of the axle. I know you can just get rebuilt ones from auto zone with the whole axle, but IMO they dont last long enough, and even though replacements are free, changing them is annoying.

Just to be clear, I mean removing the joint from the axle and installing a new one, not changing the whole assembly.

Are you sure you can get parts for it? I have to buy a whole axle just to replace the boot on my wrx. Nothing on teh interwez, napa or subaru.

later, matt

Yea, I have found them for sale, although they are pretty expensive for brand new ones. Its kinda funny that i can still buy new ones for my milano, but fidning them for the subaru is alot harder.

Outer CV joints are usually held on with a snap ring. Like this:

It's designed to collapse into a deep groove in the axle tip. The usual method: remove the CV axle from the vehicle and put it in a vise with the CV joint to be removed pointing downward. Remove the boot and use a brass hammer to tap the inside race outward, it should move around 3/16" and then stop. At this point the snap ring should be centered (very important). If the joint doesn't move out this small amount, try tapping it further onto the shaft then tapping outward again. If the snap ring is not centered, driving the inner race off will bend the ring so it can't drop into the groove and this makes it necessary to hit the inner race hard enough to cut the snap ring. And that means hitting it HARD. Don't ask how I know. here's what the axle looks like with the race off:

Once the snap ring is centered, use the brass hammer to smack the inner race towards the outside of the axle. It should come off in three or four whacks. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly. Hint: when you put the outer snap ring into place, grease it liberally so it will stay centered on the shaft as you drive the CV joint on. If it gets off center, that becomes a massive pain in the ass.

If it's the inner one, you remove the boot and pull the joint out of the 'tulip'. Wipe the grease off of the inner race and there's a conventional snap ring, take it off and remove the race. FWIW, when I worked for the Scooby dealer the inner tulips would wear and this caused a nasty vibration on acceleration. The only fix was a new tulip.

I changed out the front of the wrx last year. The rebuilt from autozone was $65 or something? Took about an hour total to fix.... I don't know--- for all the effort it's going to take to rebuild (assuming even that parts are available), you could buy and swap a lot of rebuilts that'll last 50k. It was surprisingly easy.

To each their own though- I certainly understand the value of a job done right.

Yea, im still not sure. New joints are available, but for a set of 4 for the front is about $1k. One of them is dead for sure, im not sure about the others. The car has quite a lot of miles on it, so it may not outlast a set of rebuilt ones anyway, but who knows.

Axles are so cheap these days, I wouldn't mess with a joint replacement. Better ones come with a good warranty, and you may even find they are selling brand new ones and not reman's now.

Another option is to just get a used axle. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but unless the boots tear and stay that way for a while Subaru axles will go 200k no problem. I've never replaced a joint in any of mine, just boots. I check them every oil change to catch them before things get too contaminated.

A lot of people seem to be happy with http://www.raxles.com/

I've had a front set of Raxles axles on my WRX for about 3 years with no complaints.

I have looked for used axles, but no luck. Buying a complete assembley is an option, as long as they arent the ones were they rebuild them by grinding the hardned surface off so they wear out quickly.

Jensenman wrote: If it's the inner one, you remove the boot and pull the joint out of the 'tulip'. Wipe the grease off of the inner race and there's a conventional snap ring, take it off and remove the race. FWIW, when I worked for the Scooby dealer the inner tulips would wear and this caused a nasty vibration on acceleration. The only fix was a new tulip.

A significantly cheaper, albeit more temporary fix would be to take the right and left axles apart, and swap the inner plunge housing left-right. This way the wear is not on the thrust area of the joint anymore, and there isn't enough force on engine braking to cause a noticeable vibration.