I have a 99 Blazer ZR2. Whenever I make a low speed (5mph) left handed turn I can hear a clunking noise coming from the frontend. I have been told that I have a bad CV joint. Is this accurate? If so, is this a dificult thing to change? Thanks.

 

Was it a shop that told you that you had a bad CV joint? If so, I'd be inclined to believe them.

Basically, the change out involves removing the wheel, the brake caliper/rotor (suspend the caliper with some wire/rope), removing the axle nut, unbolting the wheel bearing. After all of that, I'm not sure if you have to pop the upper ball joint out of the steering knuckle or not, but then you have to remove the shaft from the differential housing/inner shaft. My manuals say to strike the inner CV joint with a block of wood & hammer to disengage it. It also states popping the upper ball joint, but IIRC, the whole CV shaft should come through the steering knuckle, but I'm only going from what I remember seeing about the relative sizes of things in there. I haven't ever tried doing this.

Good luck and if you need anything more, let me know. I can get some diagrams for you, but I can't do it until tomorrow night. Between work and fire training, I don't have much time.

 

Just in case you're considering having a shop do it, I had one done at Midas for $200, which was less than any other places I got quotes from. They replaced the whole CV axle with a remanufactured one, so I ended up with both a new inner and outer joint even though possibly only the outer one was bad. This seems to be standard procedure, since the whole axle needs to be removed to replace one joint, and the cost for labor would make it just as expensive.

Did you look at your CV boots to see if they were torn and grease was leaking out? In my case, it was obvious, one boot was really bad, there was grease all over the place, and even though I had no noise yet, I went ahead and replaced it. It had been that way for quite awhile, I think, and the previous owner had chosen to ignore it. Something to check when buying a used vehicle!

 

One of the boots is blown. There's grease all over the frame. I've changed wheel bearings before, so if I can do that it seems that I'm half way home on changing the CV joints. I have a ball joint repair set from Harbor Freight, so that should make popping them out a bit easier. I've heard that this is a common problem and can get the CV joints from the local auto parts store for $78. I'm going to give it a shot. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks.

 

No need to pop the ball joints, or tierods.
Jack her up
Remove tire
Remove brake caliper and caliper bracket
Remove bearing hub
Use a long extension and remove the cv to diff bolts, take her out.
the key is removing the hub assemble.

A good shop/tech can do it in about 45minutes.