Date:         Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:05:12 -0500
Reply-To:     Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Subject:      Cheapo CV Boot repair(emergency only)
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Our Subie Outback had a front inner boot blow and not having the cash
for a new axle jsut yet, I got creative for a "keep the rest of the
grease in there until I can fix it" shade tree repair.  Most Walmarts
and Harbor Freights have these small rolls of shrink wrap for
shipping stuff and such and they come with like a white plastic
handle for the wrapping part.  The roll is maybe 7-8" in width.  In
additon to that, I used part of a roll of 3M 33+ electrical tape and
a pair of semi sharp scissors or maybe a razor type knife might work too.

The inner boot on the Subie(and Syncro for that matter) is pretty
congested in there making the rolling of the shrink wrap around the
old boot somewhat difficult, so I jacked up the vehicle and had y
wife manually spin the right front tire while I fed the shrink wrap
through the smallest of gaps above the exhaust.  I went back ands
forth over the entire area from axle to CV joint buit didn't put a
lot of pressure  nthe stretch wrap.  Snug, but not way tight.  I made
sure I was rolling the wrap so the end flap was pointing to the rear
for roation's sake, and then had her rotate slowly and I covered it
more or less with the electrical tape too.

My thinking was that the width and elasticity of the shrink wrap in
combo with the ability of the electrical tape to stick to clean
shrink wrap, maight jus t make a decent temporary boot.  We've driven
it for a few days with positive results so far.  I didn't try to heat
shrink the wrap over the old boot, but that may make a slightly
cleaner temporary fix. I would feel lucky to have access to a heat
gun during a roadside repair.

Anybody ever tried this fix???  I'm thinking the inboard CV's on the
Vanagon could benefit from this, but how you'd feed that shrink wrap
inside the hub housings, good luck with that.

YMMV

Max