Half Shaft Boots

[zambo]

I am just about to pull the second of my half shafts off as I prepare to get the rear sub-frame, etc. ready for powder coating.

 

The boots on the half shafts are not perished but looking pretty crusty for their age and I thinking a overall rehab of the exterior is in order and that should include the boots. Are these a BMW specific item or are their generic fits for these?

 

Thanks

 

Richard

[Simeon]

No doubt you could find some generic ones at a push but I would get the correct ones from one of the usual suppliers. 

 

If they are genuinely ‘un-split’ then consider keeping them. People talk about how much better quality the old ones are compared to new and they are easy enough to go back and fix retrospectively if you do get a split in the next few years. Give them a good clean up and have a look for cracking and splits. 

[zambo]

Good advice Simeon - will stay with them and get the boots on my next W&N or Pelican order. Any suggestions on a general clean up - just a degreaser and rinse? And rattle can the shafts of course.

[Mike Self]

Knocking on wood--all eight halfshaft boots on my two '02s (69 and 73) are original, and have never split.  Maybe that's because I have four spare shafts in my basement parts stash...but the old ones definitely seem to be more robust than the modern replacements...

 

mike

[Simeon]

57 minutes ago, zambo said:

Good advice Simeon - will stay with them and get the boots on my next W&N or Pelican order. Any suggestions on a general clean up - just a degreaser and rinse? And rattle can the shafts of course.

 

Yes, some brake cleaner will get them right. Maybe soak them in something not quite as strong (the degreaser that you rinse with water) and scrub them with a plastic brush. 

 

You can definitely paint the shafts, that’s what I did, but next time I do it I am following @markmac‘s lead and getting some suitably sized black heat shrink (preferably without any text). This gives a nice robust finish like poor man’s powder coating. 

[worzella]

Product called Vinylex (blue bottle) is great for cleaning and conditioning rubber/vinyl bits.. I wipe down all my “black” items twice a year to keep nice

 

Refurbing shafts?  Are you popping can lids and regreasing CV joints???

 

Randy

[markmac]

I will say I like the way the shrink tubing came out.  My axles are shorter than standard so not much of the axle shows.  I had the baskets, bearings, stars and axles REM superfinished along with some other stuff.  A lot of stress put on those part in my car so the stars were magnafluxed as well.  The shrink tubing is super tuff and can be removed with an exacto knife easily if need be.  Brand new boot kit from BMW.  I will say it is a PIA doing these, the hardest thing in my opinion - getting the new caps on the back of the CV.

[zambo]

Product called Vinylex (blue bottle) is great for cleaning and conditioning rubber/vinyl bits.. I wipe down all my “black” items twice a year to keep nice
 
Refurbing shafts?  Are you popping can lids and regreasing CV joints???
 
Randy

Mine show no telltale signs of not being spot on in operation Randy, but I was over at my friends workshop this morning removing the subframe bushes and we discussed this at our coffee break.

He said there isn’t a great deal of reason to play with them because they are easy to take out to refurb later once the car is operational, should they start to fail in some way. But also agreed that is seems silly with them out of the car not to pull them apart, inspect and assuming all is well ... repack with grease and add new boots and clips.

Trick will be finding the simple parts locally as the freight is a killer from Northern Hemisphere unless they are part of a bigger order. So will check with BMW on Monday to see how much they’ll “fleece” me for them. [emoji23]

I will look on FAQ for a post on how-to on this also.

[zambo]

Of course minor misadventures visited the removal of the half shafts with a single cap head bolt on each of the shafts already rounded out by previous mechanics working on the car.

 

To be fair they might not have been touched for decades so cannot whine too much, we've all made blunders along the way. Interestingly both were at the diff end of the shafts ... probably nothing in that, though I noticed that whilst all 24 were pretty tough to get off, the ones at the diff connection seemed tighter overall.

 

I dremel'd off part of the opposing nuts in a couple of minutes and the nut/bolt then untightened easily. I am thinking new hardware for these 24 key connection points is in order, though I am trying to figure if they really are M8 12.9 bolts as indicated on Realoem, or if that's a bit of misinformation that occasionally pops up there. I will clean up some of the bolt heads tonight afterwork to see if they marked. There are alternative bolt part numbers indicated on Realoem and not all suggest 12.9 ...?

 

Pictured below is all that is left - 4 bolts and the diff is off and then all the relevant bits are off to the powdercoaters.