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Will's new project: a 1996 Isuzu Rodeo. It's a work in progress. Here are some shots of the first major effort - changing the CV boots and ball joints. Super swamper tires, a lift kit, and some rust-oleum will surely follow shortly.
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Here it is - a 1996.5 Isuzu Rodeo LS. This is to replace Will's 1997 Honda Passport (same thing as a Rodeo) we sold two years ago. He missed it a lot. :)
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The new Rodeo came with a fancy brush guard, running boards, floor mats, a CD player, and a 5 speed with shift on the fly 4wd. The only thing it lacks (as Kristina is quick to remind anyone who will listen) is a sun roof. While Will is probably going to add several aftermarket upgrades to it, a sun roof is not on the list.
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The first major repair that was required (aside from new tires) was an alternator. While there is no photographic documentation of this job, it was extremely simple, and done over at Terry's garage. Took all of about 1/2 an hour. The SECOND major item was the CV boots and ball joints. Here's a shot of the old ones.
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While I wasn't keen on wrecking the existing hardware, in this case it was already wrecked (note the tear and leakage.) I attempted to remove with a pickle fork first, but ended up bending the fork before the joint popped out. I finally ended up buying a pittman arm puller and that did the trick.
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Funny how the manual thinks you unbolt 5 bolts and remove the joint. Simple as that. (Note the 'just not going anywhere' situation created by not removing the steering knuckle first.)
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Once I got the dust cap off I was presented with this handy snap ring dodad. I stabbed myself repeatedly with a screwdriver trying to get it off before giving up and buying snap ring pliers. Came right off with those...
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Once the snap ring was off and the cover removed, there's a locking washer (screws were all stripped) and a locking ring nut that had to be loosened with a hammer. Yes, the manual actually recommended a hammer.
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Finally! The hub has been removed, the steering knuckle out of the way, and I can now get to the CV joints. This is about 8 hours into the process, still on the passenger side.
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After cutting away the boots and cleaning out some of the goo, here's the inner CV joint in all it's glory. I wouldn't actually recommend cutting away the CV boots prior to the axle removal - it's a lot cleaner and easier to just unclamp the inner one, then remove the axle entirely. See below for a shot of that.
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There's a nifty little split ring wire thing sitting just inside the CV joint housing. It's removed with a screw driver, and keeps the racer cage and roller bearings in place. Funny how I forgot to put it back the first time and had to do some minor uninstalling and reinstalling to get it back on after everything else was done. "Whats this part here... Hmm, that doesn't look too important - its just a little round wire... Oh, wait, that keeps the axle on."
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Once you pull the axle out of the inner CV joint, you have a goo covered mess of a race cage full of bearings. You pop the bearings out of the race cage as shown, being careful not to scrape anything too badly, or loose the bearings on the floor somewhere.
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The outer CV joint doesn't appear to come apart. I managed to get it pretty clean by blowing air into it, and then repacked it with fresh grease from the CV boot kit.
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Here's the half axle and outer CV joint just before I started reassembly. The race cage has an inner part and an outer part. The inner part has a cut down side to allow it to go on over the end of the axle. Be sure to assemble it with the cut down part facing in, or you won't be able to get the sucker back together again. Don't grease it up until you have it all together. Oh yeah, PUT THE CV BOOTS ON before you put the race cage and bearings back on and grease them up. Otherwise it's just a messy messy situation.
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Its actually a lot easier to grease up and attach the outer CV and boot while the axle is off the truck. You can grease up the inner CV as well but don't clamp the inner boot down yet. It's a pain to get it on the inner CV housing if the other end is clamped down.
This is the half axle from the drivers side. You'll notice that it still has the old CV boots on it. I found out it's actually a LOT easier to just pull the whole thing off in one peice than it is to try to cut away the boots, clean it up, and pull it apart while still attached to the truck.
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To quote the manual, installation is the reverse of removal! Here's the completed CV joints and ball joints. You'll notice that the boot clamps are a little big, and look suspiciously like hose clamps. The ones that shipped with the boot kit were useless. I'm not sure how well the hose clamps will work, but I'm going to try them and see.
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Here's a shot of a shiny new upper ball joint. Putting them back on was a walk in the park compared to pulling them off. While I was putting things back together, I also repacked the wheel bearings. (The bearings came out with the hub dissassembly, so it was trivial to clean them off and put new grease on them.)
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After the CV boots, sure enough, came the lift kit. However, to do the lift in the front you crank your torsion bars, which in turn screws up your alignment, and tends to wreck your CV boots.
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...So I put manual locking hubs on the front wheels to allow them to turn freely without spinning the axels and CV's. This should, in theory, prevent the front end from eating CV boots.
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Here's what the hubs looked like prior to the manuals. The whole hub cover comes off, the flange type "always on" hubs come off, and the manual locking hubs bolt on in their place.
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After I finished with the 'upgrade' I started getting suspicious of the lug nuts. They look naked and exposed after the stock hub cover is gone.
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