Hey all, well I'm almost done with my AV6 swap. I was hoping to have it done this weekend but had some family stuff going on, and had some trouble getting the tranny lined up on the install (the engine seemed to have been pulled to the rear a bit, and ran into all kinds of trouble with the two not lining up and no clearance to move the tranny around much).

Anyway, during disassembly somehow one of the ball joint boots got pulled off. It didn't want to go back on very easily so I just left it while I did the rest. I see in the manual there is a special tool for popping the boot on. Any tips for getting this sucker on?

 

you could always find some hose clamps and tighten them on assuming there are places it will catch.

Personally you you can get them for 20 bucks or so at autozone and since you are replacing the tranny you could have new lower ball joints too.

 

In case it matters to anyone, the way these are installed is the boot is filed with grease, then installed on the ball joint. Then, the retaining spring is placed over the top of the boot using the special tool, which I do not have. I was able to make it work by uncoiling the spring and wrapping it around the groove in the boot, being careful not to bend the spring.

But yes, probably need new ball joints regardless