OK, The Rear Axle Is Off and What Is Molicote?

Just removed the driver side rear axle on the '76 308 to replace the broken boots. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. First thing I did was jacked up the rear driver side of car, put wood blocks under the frame and removed the wheel. (Caution if you're gonna do this, wear clothes that will be thown away. The grease and filth are unbelievable.)

Got to the inside bolts by joining all the 1/2 inch drive socket extensions I had in the tool box to make a single 24" extension. This is so you can work right at the rear wheel and not under the car. Used an 8mm hex socket. Whacked the end of the 24" extension with a hammer to rattle the bolts, then used the Craftsman 1/2 inch drive breaker bar to break the bolts loose. Then the 1/2 inch drive rachet to remove the bolts.

Got to the wheel side bolts buy putting the breaker bar and hex socket in between the A-arm and the frame. Then went to the rear of the car and used foot power to break the wheel-side bolts loose. No room to hammer here.

The key to this job is doing one bolt at a time, then rotating the wheel so the next bolt is near the top (for both the inside and wheel-side bolts). This is done by making sure the car is in neutral gear and using the hand brake to keep the axle from turning while torguing, then releasing the hand brake to rotate to the next bolt. (Large screwdriver in the edge of the brake rotor makes rotating the wheel easy.)

And you have to use 1/2 inch drive socket tools here, 3/8" is just too flimsy for these bolts.

Will buy the boots this afternoon, but what about the grease? The manual calls for Molicote BR 2. What is that and can't I just use axle grease? And how much?

Saw a little trick for extending the life of these boots. After repacking and reassembly, you put a nylon cable tie around each crease in the boots to keep them from expanding when traveling at high speeds. Guess it could work???

Also, the manual does not specify a torque for reassembling this mess.

 

Thanx for the info Rob.

This job is taking longer than I thought. Finally have the new boots and they came in a kit with new retainer rings, clamps and the grease.

Cleaned the bearings up with diesel fuel then sprayed them several times with brake parts cleaner. They look almost pristine. My shafts look good and there's no scoring, discolorations or flat spots on my balls. So I will be packing and reinstalling the shaft this weekend.

The shaft end of the new boots look a tad smaller than the old boot and I'm thinking that's because the old boot has been stretched a bit. After all, it's been on the shaft since 1976.

I guess it's normal that the new boots will be a tight fit on both the shaft and bearing ends.