Hey guys - great site with a bunch of experienced folks. I have just bought a 99 GC Laredo with 106K mi and replaced both front half shafts, hub/bearing assemblies, brake pads and rotors. The problem is that the passenger side cv boot is torn already and it has been in the truck for only 2 weeks. It seems like the boot is rubbing the outboard end of the axle tube inside the knuckle and is being cut into. Is there a way to prevent this? The rubber boot rides directly on the metal of the axle tube - am I missing a part that is supposed to protect the boot? I have a couple of other issues/questions but will post them as separate threads to keep things from getting to confusing. Any help in solving this would be most appreciated! Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Welcome to CF.
That boot shouldn't be rubbing on the end of the axle housing/knuckle area. Where did you get the axle? My opinion it's a bad part. I'd take it back.

 

Thanks for the quick response Ol"blue. I got the part from NAPA. I thought it strange when I was putting together that it would do that by design but I figured it had run 106K like that. I just figured that the engineers at Jeep are smarter than me so it must be OK. What keeps water, mud etc. from getting inside the axle tube if the boot is not supposed to be clean up to the axle tube? Am I missing a seal on the outboard end of the tube?

 

The seal is on the inboard end of the axle tube at the differential housing.

 

or the knuckle is bent