Outer CV Boot repair

ledbette said:

I had this issue on my 981. Oetiker Clamps get loose and grease starts to seep out and goes everywhere. I just removed the clamp, cleaned off the area with a little brake cleaner sprayed into a shop towel, squeezed some axle grease estimated to be about what was lost into the boot, put a new clamp on, squished it around a bit, and finished up with brake cleaner to clean up the mess left behind. That was about 4 years ago. No leaking since and no axle issues.

I think if you get it early, and avoid getting any significant debris into the axle, adding grease and resealing works just fine.

Maybe they just aren't tightening those clamps well enough during production, or they just don't stay tight. I didn't have any issues with the clamps I purchased. I think I got them from FCPeuro.

Click to expand...

ledbette said:

I did mine in the garage on jack stands. I have lift bars to put the whole car up. One of these days I'll invest in a QuickJack.

I bought new clamps. I cut the old ones off, and made sure to clean the area around the inside of the boot and the axle where the two make contact. I used brake cleaner on a rag so there wasn't any grease in that area. When you tighten the clamps, you want to make sure you can't rotate the boot on the axle by hand. If you can rotate it, you're likely to get grease slipping out when it heats up.

Click to expand...

featman said:

OK, last question. You mentioned adding grease. Did you have to partially slide the boot back to do that? Trying to picture it.
Much appreciated!

Click to expand...

ledbette said:

Sorry. Been off the forum for a few weeks.

I used one of those packets of CV grease, squeezed all the grease to one side and cut the corner off the other. Once the clamp is off, there is enough of a gap to get the end of the packet into the boot. I compressed the boot slightly (maybe a half-inch or so), so that the area where the boot will sit doesn't make contact. This was mainly to reduce the amount of grease I had to clean up. Once the packet is inserted, you can squeeze it slowly with your fingers and slide your fingers down like a ketchup packet to squirt the grease into the boot. Then clean up the axle and the inside of the boot where the boot will sit on the axle.

I don't recall whether the axle was tapered and whether I had more space after the slight compression.

Click to expand...

ledbette said:

Sorry. Been off the forum for a few weeks.

I used one of those packets of CV grease, squeezed all the grease to one side and cut the corner off the other. Once the clamp is off, there is enough of a gap to get the end of the packet into the boot. I compressed the boot slightly (maybe a half-inch or so), so that the area where the boot will sit doesn't make contact. This was mainly to reduce the amount of grease I had to clean up. Once the packet is inserted, you can squeeze it slowly with your fingers and slide your fingers down like a ketchup packet to squirt the grease into the boot. Then clean up the axle and the inside of the boot where the boot will sit on the axle.

I don't recall whether the axle was tapered and whether I had more space after the slight compression.

Click to expand...