CV Joints

CV joints will make a clicking sound when you take sharp turns, the clicking noise will come from the outside wheel during the turn. Hence if you make a right hand turn the left CV will "CLICK" and vice versa. A u-joint you should feel just as much as you hear. If you have a FWD you most likely do not have a U-Joint, but if you have a AWD,FWD or RWD you will have a u-joint.

If you don't have the right tools don't attempt to change your struts. Getting the struts of is, easy but you have to have a spring compressor once you get them off also you need a workbench with a vice to remove the spring. Very Dangerous without proper tools.

CV joints (constant velocity) have three main componants. The outer hub (the piece nearest the wheel) the outer hub (attached to the drive shaft) and the planetary bearings (the "y" or "+" shaped piece) that sits between the two hubs. The centre nut on the end of the drive shaft needs to be removed . The Brake caliper will need to be removed theouter hub can now be knocked through the main wheel bearing housing. Where the rubber gaiter is fixed to the outer hub, break the clip that holds it in place an peel the gaiter back, it should slide up the drive shaft quite easily. If not break the clip at the small end of the gaiter and then slide it along the shaft. At the rear of the INNER hub (once the grease it cleaned off) you should be able to see the retaining clip Use circlip pliers to open the clip and hit the hub with a copper hammer. The whole CV should come off the shaft.

If the CV is already in bits, and you have ALL the above componants, make sure all the bearing parts are there!! Some have sealed cups and some are not and have needle bearings. If the hub is undamaged it is possible to use a press to put the 3 main parts back together.

In all honesty if the boot is torn and any amount of grease has been spilled then you should really consider replacing the joint due to contamination. with the advent of cv rebuilding shops popping up you can usually get a complete axle with inner and outer joints new boots and shaft for less than 150 bucks. I would go that route if it was mine. to remove the axle you will need to have the vehicle with jack stands on front then you need to remove the cotter pin and castellated keeper (the part that looks like a crown) remove the nut behind it. this can require alot if force. once it is removed you will need to remove the 2 strut bolts on spindle if one has an accentric be certain to mark its position before removing it. be certain to protect the threads by reinstalling the large nut previously removed back on until near flush. using a punch or brass drift drive the axle out of the hub assy. last part is to get a pry bar in between the trans case and the axle shaft. this is the r/s you may have an extension shaft or bearing on shaft that needs to be unbolted from engine block some models shorten the shaft and it ends at bearing with that type you would need to just pop it off in front of bearing using same pry bar method. this holds true to more than half of all cv axle shafts.

signed by an ASE Master tech and Ford Senior master Technician

With a pry bar

Buy a good manual that covers the year of your Focus, read and understand it before you ever start. If you have specific questions after doing that, then research those question here, and on Focus forums on the internet.

This is a repair the requires partial disassembly of the majority of your front suspension, in order to remove the axle. If you do it wrong, you'll have a lot more work to do than if you take the time to do it right.

with great diffaculty

you have to pull the wheel when you pull the wheel off you should see a huge nut in the center of the wheel assembly, an air powered impact gun is required to remove this remove this first. Then find the upper and lower ball joints. I would then remove both cater pins (they pass through the nut on each ball joint). next remove the the nut on the bottom ball joint then pull the control arm down. then remove the nut from the upper ball joint and pull the upper control arm away from the wheel assembly. at this point you should assure that the brake caliper is off of the disc or maybe even do this prior to these steps. you now should be able to pull the wheel assembly away form the outer part of the cv joint, after you have that off you can pull the cv joint from the inner part of the joint away from the trans-axle just find a pry bar place in between the cv joint and trans axle and pull them away from each other you might even be able to just wrap your hands around the inner part of the cv joint and just pull. you then put the new cv joint in place of the old one and put it all back together. The process in the same for most models of the Olds. Bravada, GMC jimmy, and Chevys blazer and s-10 as well as many others too. if you haven't already i would recommend that you also replace the upper and lower ball joints while every thing is apart as they tend to go bad often in these models

If you have a steering lock, that can lock your steering wheel in place, until you use the key in the ignition to unlock it.

People all seem to have their own method to this madness, but remove tire and brake assembly may have to tap on the rotor, or depending on the model it may not be removed at this point, remove wheel bearing nut cap, remove nut, remove think its eight 12mm bolts hub assembly should be loose now, remove ball joints from upper and lower control arms, remove tie rod, hub rotor and all should come off like butter, unbolt cv axle from front differential, dont worry diff is sealed no leaky leaky. It is common just to call it a cv joint job which I dont know if you only intend to replace the one bad cv joint ( inner or outer), but i advise you to do the entire axle it isn't that big of a price difference and if your in that deep mine as well do both. DN901

how do you replace a CV joint on a 1992 Chevy pickup?

Yes the joint will become contaminated with road dust and rain causing it to wear. @ earliest possible time remove joint from car wash joint in paraffin and re pack with grease supplied with new boot and refit

Most vehicles now are considered unibodies meaning that the body acts as the frame for the majority of the vehicle. Large SUVs and pick-ups still use the traditional body on frame setup due to it's ability to tow larger loads. Either way, the term used to describe the underpinnings of a vehicle is chassis (pronounced "chassy").

The outer joint. The turning stress is placed on the outer joint which causes divots to develop in the windows that that house the balls causing a clicking noise that usually is worse on a turn. The inner joint only has to account for suspension travel and is a different/ sliding design.

Take your car to a empty shopping mall lot. Go about 20 miles per our and make a fairly sharp right or left turn. There will be a clicking noise if the cv is going. Also check for Cv boot leaks or cracks.

The wheel bearings on a car is the rims located in the center of the four tyres that the car rolls on.

Could be the tires, or your front brake rotors

It is best to replace the whole axle, Its easy to do not to mention pretty inexpensive....

It is very simple and the first one I did took two days and now I can replace one in 45 minutes . Pick up a Haynes manuel on your noen and follow th directions although later you will see there are short cuts that they don't tell you about and you learn thease the more you replace.

The ball joint holds the spindle on most assemblies and if it breaks then there will be a loss of control. Most go bad and you can feel the play from up to down on the wheel. But extreme circumstances would be it separating and that is never a good thing. Replace as necessary.

The car is 8 years old. By now the junkyards are full of them.

Could be a bad tire?

Could be a bad wheel bearing?

Undo the big nut in the center of the brake rotor (seen from the outside with the wheel cover off). Lift the car, separate the lower ball joint from the spindle. The outer end of the CV should be loose in the spline in the center of the rotor. Pull the strut/ rotor assembly outwards and off to one side (2 people is nice), pull the outer end of the shaft out of the rotor spline. You may be able to pull the shaft out of the trany at this point (grab it at the inner joint as you will pull the tripod apart by yanking on the shaft section). If its being difficult make sure the vehicle is supported properly before you slide under it and pry it out of the trany. Check the seal in the trany before you put the new shaft in and replace it if needed. Put it all back together the way you took it apart making sure the inner end is as far in the trany as the old one was. Be carefull not to damage the seal when you insert the inner joint end into the trany (a little lube is a good thing, trany fluid will do). Don't forget to check/top up the fluid after you're done.

Could be,

Driver abuse,

Suspension has been altered,

Improper installation,

Poor quality replacement parts,

One or more of the above.