syncro driveshaft boots joints

[..lee..]

after wales weekend and some wadeing i`ve wanted to check a few things and this is what i`ve found.



you can see the metal strap has deformed the boot slightly and i thought water might get in so i had a look.



some water had got in and there was not so much as pitting but black marking on the balls and the faces of the inner joint.



after cleaning it all out there was stiffness in the joint at the outermost points and it took a fair bit of emmery cloth rubbing to sort it all out. now this was in the cv boot that hadn`t split. the joint that had the split boot on it was smooth and clean so i was wondering how this other joint ended up with what seems like burn marks on it even though the boot was intact.

refitting the shafts i made sure that both ends were sealed this time with a little bit of sealer around the cv boot and useing cable ties seem to grip the boot more even.



found a bit of roughness in the wheel bearing too so will have to do that this week also.
has anyone else had similar problems.

lee.
just noticed the pics are of the outer joint but the clip was the same on the inner so you get my drift i hope.

[jed the spread]

I personally wouldnt trust that cable tie mate.

jed

[toomanytoys]

That metal clip needed a sharp tap with a hammer to even out the pressure...

[..lee..]

Now the sealer has set I hope that even if the cable tie fails it shouldn't let any water in. Will be keeping a close eye on them though. Joy of joys, it's wheel bearing day tomorrow.

[syncroandy]

I've not seen that problem with the oem hard plastic boots (white or black), they are a good tight fit on the shaft. The manual says to put a bead of sealant in the groove on the joint when fitting a fresh boot, so I guess water ingress was recognized as a risk. I use sikaflex to seal them if I have a tube of it open.