Stretching Driveshaft Boots

[Frankthered]

Is this the done thing? Is it effective?

Just curious what people's thoughts are. Many years ago on a Citroen Visa, I needed a boot on the outer joint and the joint wouldn't split - designed not to.

So, rather than take the shaft off the car and remove the inner joint to get the boot on, we (my dad, BIL and I) tried a split boot with predictable results. IIRC, it got through the MoT (with shaking of head from the tester) and lasted about another day and a half before letting go!

Then we had to do it properly!

Obviously, stretching the boot would have made things easier as it would have removed the need to dismantle any of the joints but my concern would be whether the rubber would be stretchy enough for the small end to go over the joint and still form a good seal on the shaft.

Am I just behind the times on this? Does everybody do it this way now?

[andym1603]

you can buy "Stretchy" cv boots. Ideally you will need one of these.



The small end of the boot will stretch quite a bit. It has to be lubed up first with an oil/wax for this purpose.
I have used them in the past with good results. Once you get the knack it is surprisingly easy.

[chammyman]

Its the done thing now.

The manual cone is the dinosaur way of doing it. I use my air powered stretcher.