Removing the tripod joint & fitting the new boot.
Ok so, Driveshaft in the vice, we need to remove the tripod joint from the end in order for our new boot to to on.
It's held in place by a circlip, remove that and remove the tripod joint - ours came off pretty easily but you may require the three legged pullers here.
NOTE which way it came off, and replace it the same way.
Not sure why, but that's what I was told- so I did it.
So here it is removed.
Now, you will see that unlike most cars- this boot is stationary on the car as there is a bearing on the driveshaft that the old boot goes over.
The hard part is refitting the new boot OVER this bearing, and is the reason why I am glad we removed the driveshaft.
Now it may be possible to remove and refit the bearing, we didn't really try as we thought it probably would require removing the outer CV joint from the other side of the driveshaft and be a pain in the bottom.
Either way, it's not necessary.
What we did was to fabricate a tapered tube from some plastic (actually we cut a rectangle out of the top of an old plastic dulux paint pot and bent it into shape)
One end needs to be big enough to go over the bearing, t'other end to go inside the new boot, then (simply) slide the boot along the tapered tube you've made and it will easily go into place.
TA DA.
You need to attach the small clip to secure the boot to the bearing.
It took us a while to figure out how they are tightened, have a look at one near your air filter box to see, basically you squeeze the edges of the bit that sticks up together. (sorry no pics)
I would presume the best thing to do would be to put your new clip over the boot and slide it into place once you have refitted, but as fiat gave us the wrong size clip we had to make do with a very large and wide cable tie (grr).
Re-Assembly really is the reverse of disassembly, don't forget to put your car back on the level before refilling your gearbox.
Hope this helps someone unfamiliar with these tasks, for the rest of you sorry to be so long-winded!
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