front outer gaiter needs changing. how

[sketty]

hi
my front left outer gaiter has split and failed the MOT. bought 1 from milners but ive been told that its easier to remove the shaft from the engine side to change it rather than off the wheel side. is this true and is there anything i should know about before starting......also needs right track rod end and some welding underneath but thats easy enough as long as it dont snow and the rain does 1 for saturday..any pictures would be helpfull if anyone has the time. i really need get a garage sorted.
its a N reg 3L TD kzn130
thanks

[Ambobeer]

From memory you jack up and put on axel stands, remove wheel, remove end cover and the bolt it exposes, remove hub - this is done by undoing nuts but leaving on slack and then tapping along the side where the cone nuts are until they pop out (that's why you don't take the nuts off) - this exposes a big circlip which needs to come off, next remove the six nuts & bolts where the shaft fastens to the diff. From here, jacking up the suspension until parallel with road should just give you enough room to get the shaft out. I believe the driver side is easiest and we said it might be a good idea to drop out the anti roll bar next time. I think someone posted that splitting a ball joint somewhere on the diff helps with this too.

Once removed I seem to recall that you split the inside rubber to get at another circlip which releases the shaft allowing the new rubbers to go on. Replace cir clip re fix rubbers and put it all back together again, remembering to clean and reseal/ gasket the hub.

The cheap large retainer clips on the outer boots lasted about 48 hrs and were replaced with large jubilee clips, no problems since.

[sketty]

cheers lads
just hope the weather gets bwetter for the weekend

[BUSHWHACKER]

cheers lads
just hope the weather gets bwetter for the weekend

Better or wetter?