I got the car up on the lift today. The outer CV boot on the right side is torn, and the shaft has a lot of play in it. The ball joints also have too much in them. The damper fork bushing and bolt are solidly frozen, and they have to be removed to take out the driveshaft.
I ordered the ball joints, drive shafts and bushings from NAPA, and the bolts I had to get straight from Honda. I bought two of everything. I should be able to pick most of the parts up tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully I can do the whole right side on Friday. Then I can just hold off on the left side until I have the time.
In the mean time I’ve got my fingers crossed that the CV joint doesn’t break between now and Friday.
My CV joints are bad. They make clicking noises when turning. They’ve been doing this for a while now, I’m sure if you look back in the posts I’ve probably mentioned it before. But now it is getting worse. Today, driving home, it was bad, bad, bad. The right side sounds really bad. I’m worried it is going to break any day now. I have a break in two weeks and I’ll have the time to replace the axle, I just hope it lasts that long. I really hope it lasts that long.
I’ve made up a parts list, and I need a few new tools to do the job.
I checked my service manual, as well as this helpful tutorial at 3Geez.
(Have I said enough great things about 3Geez on this blog yet?)
I figure I should replace both axles and both lower ball joints. I should also replace the one upper ball joint that is a little worn, because it may contribute to the wear of a new CV joint. *sigh* I’ll need to find a shop that can press out the old ball joints and press in the new ones. I don’t believe I can do that with hand tools.
Here’s a picture of where the rock hit.
You can just barely feel a tiny chip in the very center. You can see the rainbow effect in the mark, and if you press on it, you can see the rainbow change as everything flexes. I just find this very intriguing.
On a trip to the Berkshires over the weekend a pebble, that I swear fell from the sky collided with my windshield. It hit really hard. Surprisingly, you can’t even feel a chip where it hit, but you can see what looks kind of like a bubble. I guess the collision caused a separation between the laminate layers or something. I’ll try and get a pic tomorrow if it’s sunny, but it’s not easy to photograph glass.
The radiator still leaks a little, but I haven’t even looked at it in a while. I should really do that. The car is running well, I’m looking forward to warmer weather.
There was some good discussion in the comments for the previous post. Thanks guys. It’s great to have some regular visitors with an interest in the 3rd generation Accord.
I upgraded the program that runs this blog (Wordpress) to the latest version just now. Hopefully you can’t tell the difference.