CV boots

[Jakester]

My '95 HA4 has a torn rear right CV boot. Will one of those universal replacement boots work or do I need the specific part? Also on the drive shaft, the universal is loose and clicking when decelerating. The joint (caps)seems to be tack welded to the shaft. How does one change the univeral-grind off the weld and punch out normally? Thanks for all your help!!

[Jakester]

I put in the above post before I looked over the whole forum. Anyway thanks to vtg's pictures and step by step instructions, I got my boot changed. They were a great help and I'm sure the second time around it will be easier.
Anyway I still need to change a universal in the driveshaft. Any tips here!
Thanks again vtg!

[Stuff99]

never heard of a welded on cv before?

[Jakester]

Its not the cv, not the axle, its the driveshaft. Sorry for the confusion.

[vtg]

I put in the above post before I looked over the whole forum. Anyway thanks to vtg's pictures and step by step instructions, I got my boot changed. They were a great help and I'm sure the second time around it will be easier.
Anyway I still need to change a universal in the driveshaft. Any tips here!
Thanks again vtg!

Great to hear that my post was helpful to you, Jakester. I'm still learning how to work on these little trucks and I try to take some pics and provide some tips in the forum anytime I need to do something on my Acty and it's nice to know that my little writeups are of use to other Acty owners.


I'm not sure which U-joint you are referring to? I think that all the joints on the rear axle (driveshaft in Honda speak) are CV joints. Are you talking about a joint on the propellor shaft that runs from the tranny to front of the truck?

[Jakester]

Yes, vtg, sounds like what you call the propeller shaft, we call it a driveshaft. It runs from the trans to the front differential. There is a universal by the tranny and it has a boot where it goes into the front differential. My boot is gone also. Can you just pull the shaft out like you would an axel? And is that boot available? Thanks again for the pics!

[vtg]

I'd normally call that the driveshaft too, but my Honda manual refers to it as a prop shaft and refers to the rear axles as driveshafts, so in here I try to use the Honda terminology so others who have the same book know what I'm talking about. The prop shaft is a cinch to remove. There is probably no need to concern yourself with timing, but just to be safe, I scratched corresponding marks on the yokes and shafts before I removed mine so I could put it back together the same way as it was. The rear of the shaft (U-joint) is bolted to the transmission with 4 bolts. On the front of the shaft, you'll see what looks like a housing that appears to be bolted to the front diff with 8 bolts. But, you will notice that 4 of the bolts have a 12mm head and the other 4 have a 10mm head. You need only to remove the four 12mm headed bolts to remove the shaft from the front diff. The housing will come off with the shaft. Inside the housing, you'll see a rather simplistic looking type of CV joint that uses only two rollers. I'm not sure what those type of joints are called, but it looks kinda like a cross between a U-joint and a CV joint. By removing the four 10mm headed bolts, you can seperate the housing (joint) from the driveshaft. There is a weird looking rubber boot used on this joint and I could not find anything that resembled it, so I sorta improvised. Look under the Honda References section and you will see a recent post of mine showing how I fixed mine up. I guess I should have posted it in this section. The heading reads something like Honda Prop Shaft Boot.

PS: In order to drop the prop shaft, you'll also need to remove a U hanger bracket somewhere along the middle section of the shaft. Also, as for my CV boot repair that I described in the references section, I have not yet tested it to see how it works because I have not yet reinstalled my engine in the truck. I should have had that done by now, but I ordered a couple more engine parts and the supplier decided to ship them via Canada Post and now with the postal strike/lockout happening, I have no idea when I'll get my parts and have this thing back together.

[Jakester]

VTG, whats the best way to remove a wheel bearing from the axle beam? Can one press it from the outside to the inside and remove both at once? I am trying to do this without taking the entire beam from the truck.
Thanks!

[vtg]

VTG, whats the best way to remove a wheel bearing from the axle beam? Can one press it from the outside to the inside and remove both at once? I am trying to do this without taking the entire beam from the truck.
Thanks!

Hi Jakester.... I replaced a RH rear wheel bearing in my Acty about a year ago and I wish that I had taken some pics and written a step by step report on how I did at that time. But I was in a bit of a rush to get it done and skipped writing anything down about it. And now that a year has passed, I can't remember a whole bunch about how I did it. But I do know that I did it without removing the entire rear axle beam from the truck. Seems to me I just pulled the RH axle shaft and dropped the RH side of the beam down from the spring saddles. I think I used a brass punch to push out one of the bearings from the housing and then rigged up some sort of a puller to pull the other bearing out of the housing because it was real stiffly seated and the punch method wasn't working so well on that one. I do recall that it was tricky to get the bearings out without damaging the seals, but I did manage to save both of the seals and did reuse them as I could not locate any new seals locally. I was able to find bearings at a local auto parts store. I hope this helps you some. Good luck!