I love watching those guys, probably the best of all things like that. “The story till now,” is a good one also I’m kinda into right now.
Anyway, yeah replacing CVs can be super easy. But there are some little tricks that you need to know that actually makes it like that. If you haven’t done a ton of them, I promise, when you are tired, dirty, and possibly embarrassed in front of a crowd of guys that always think it’s a competition (that’s why I preach so much that it isn’t a competition). Then you won’t have an easy time popping them out, or in.
Some tricks are knowing that the c clip need to be at the top of the inner shaft to get it in or out. It’s even in the FSM. There are ways to do that when removing. It is pretty much a “feel” followed by a 90° rotation, then a try again. In that video where you saw the inner shaft come flying out, those forces weren’t needed at all. It worked for him, but he’s a bigger guy than most of us. Keep grease so you can keep the c clip in place when installing. Understand that CV inners “compress,” so don’t try to apply pressure on the outer, it won’t help.
Also, just like changing tires, find a flat spot people. I can’t describe to you the amount of times people try to change tires, axles, yolks, or prop shafts, in the worse of weird angled spots. You definitely need a 1/2” impact, if not, have fun with a high lift jack handle (if you carry one, which I don’t recommend) and a breaker bar. Sometimes the hub nuts pop loose easy. Sometimes, they just won’t let go.
Ultimately, if someone has replaced their CVs once for a gear change or one failure, and that’s all they have done, and they say it was super easy. Then I recommend doing it again, as they probably got lucky on the clip. That’s way you hear guys talk about how “it was fine, but the right/left on didn’t go in/out. But the other were easy.” Yeah, that’s the clip, they just don’t understand that it needs to fall in the channel it sits in, to be out of the way enough to make the job super easy.
And it’s just not a good time, to have a frustrating moment and then start beating on the truck like so many people do, and have something bad happen.
I've seen someone start trying to push on a pry bar with their foot to pop the inner out, only to knock the hi lift, and the truck fell. His leg just happened to be in the wheel well, and his balls just barely missed getting chopped off by a disk brake. And that was what some people in this forum would call, experienced. Really that person was good at buying things, and having them added to his truck. And that’s where his capability ended. Good guy, but he needed to not tackle that project, at that particular time.
So, and I mean this as the most sincere way I can, don’t try things that you are not well versed in.
A line I used a lot in my last career that I think applies well to trail repairs (or first aid since everyone like to carry a good amount of that stuff these days):
We don’t rise to the occasion, no one does. We fall to the level of our training.
Sorry to make this a post seem like I’m being mean. I just really don’t like people getting hurt, for no good reason. There are a lot of capable people on this forum, more so than most. I think that YouTube can be really helpful, but in someways, I’ve seen, emphasis on seen, people cause real problems, with the best of intentions. It’s one thing to try and learn, mess up, and try again. It’s another thing to try and learn, and not get another change to try again. Trucks falling on people, people getting disfigured from recovery equipment, and people having first aid that cause more problems. It make more me want to mention stuff like this. I actually was going to delete this post, like about 3/4th of the posts I write, but I went ahead and did it obviously. Let me know if I’m off base, and I’ll tone it down.
