I just completed the reboot process and want to than the OP for his instructions. Those instructions along with the FSM pages helped make this a pretty simple process.
A while back I had a bad tear in myCV boot and decided to replace the CV and buy a boot kit so I would have a spare. IIRC, the boot kit was right at about $30 from the good folks at TRDParts4u.
First of all, you need a brass drift or hammer, actually you need one for lots of LC repair jobs. You also need a good pair of duck bill type snap ring pliers, I found mine at O'Reileys for $18.
I had patched the tear on my cv while the new parts were on order so I had to clean all the duct tape and zip ties off to start the job. I started with a messy version of this:
Once I got all that crud off I opened up and removed the stock bands and cut the boot down one side. I highly recommend doing this over a plastic bag, its a sticky, greasy mess. I also recommend having lots of paper towels and nitrile gloves on hand.
After the boot was off and all the goop wiped away I used a thin edged screw driver to remove the snap ring on the inside lip of the tulip, this was surprisingly easy with virtually no tension on the thin wire. I gotta say I was surprised to find out that this thin snap ring is what holds the joint in the tulip.
After removing the joint from the tulip and wiping it down the six large ball bearings will basically fall out leaving you this:
You do need to add match marks that go from the edge of the tulip around the edge of the basket down the side of the bearing race and onto the shaft. This will allow you to put the parts back together the way they came apart. I used a sharpie and watched to make sure I didn't wipe my marks off. You can see my marks in the pic above.
Next step was to remove the basket, it just slides off, then the snap ring on the end of the shaft that holds the race in place, for this you will need the duck bill type snap ring pliers. It will look like this:
I then took a brass drift and hammer and removed the race from the shaft:
My inner boot was still in good shape but since I had the new one there I went ahead and removed the old one and replaced it with the new, again, this is full of grease. The outer joint does not come apart so the only real labor there is to remove the bands, slide the boot off, clean out the grease, then put it all back together. When you go to put it all back together I highly suggest wrapping the end with teflon tape and adding a bit of grease, this protects the boots and makes it much easier to install.
The inboard end is a bit more technical to put back together but its really not hard. Do the reverse of above making sure to line up your match marks and add a bit of grease to the bearings to help hold them in place. I filled up the tulip with grease and dipped the bearings in the tulip to coat them then added a bit of pressure to hold them in place while inserting the end into the tulip....get your mind out of the gutter...
Once its all back together you are left with:
A good as new CV! I was able to use the Toyota supplied band on the larger end of the inside boot, it simply fold over and locks tightly in place, I was not able to use any of the other supplied bands. The bands that came with the kit are no longer the same as the stock bands. The outer boot bands require a SST to crimp in place so I used some hose clamps that I found at West Marine. I don't mind keeping the smaller bands on, they do a good job at keeping the grease in the boot when it flexes. I am gong to look for a tool to properly crimp the larger band on the outer boot. If I find one that works I will post up about it. Fact is I just don't like the screw drive protruding on the outside of the large band.
I did remove the old snap ring that locks the CV in the diff and replaced it with the new one that comes with the boot kit. To do this I took two thin screw drivers and pushed the old one off, the new on pops on easily.
Word of caution, the OP did mention that the bearing cage has sharp edges and my thumb is proof! Be careful with that cage, it will bite ya!