How bad are these problems?

[JackG]

Originally Posted by insite

you pressed out the tie rod ends? what else did you do? agreed that you can spend a lot of time obsessing over cleanliness best not to use any cleaning agents inside the joint unless you clean everything w/ alcohol afterward. simply wipe out the excess grease w/ shop towels & re-grease on reassembly.

FYI, i DO have air tools, which help, but i DO use hand tools much of the time.

No, read my how-to in the link. I didn't do it the way the shop manual says to, instead the axle comes out from underneath the car towards the center and down. That's the opposite of the manual's procedure. It has you press out those tie rod ends (track arms, radius arms, whatever?) using a special tool, then swing the wheel carrier assembly out of the way and pull the axle straight out.

If the boot has been split for a while, I think it's a mistake not to clean the joint completely. If you just wipe away the exterior grease, you're pushing contaminated grease down into the joint... not a good thing. Wiping, using a parts cleaner, then final cleaning with brake parts cleaner from a can does the trick. Dries fast, no residue, and ready for clean, fresh grease.

I use air tools as well, but they don't save that much time it seems. I am counting time from when I twisted the key to pull it into the shop, until I drove it out and had everything cleaned up and put away. The whole job. But as I said, I'm slow and methodical. I enjoyed doing the work almost as much as driving afterwards. For me it's a sense of accomplishment... I love working on stuff.