So I've had my st3 mr260 2006 56'about a week and love it!
I was busy painting the calipers silver to give it a clean factory look and replacing the engine box mount with power flex kit when I noticed my inner driveshaft boot of the drivers side was split. DAMMIT I thought, as I have already bought new 4 tyres unexpectedly due to realising they were sh%te!

Being a Bmw chap since 18 (and ford) the rear wheel drive cars don't really suffer with drive/half shaft boot splits unless they are mega mileage vehicles. So I decided to try find a diy online for the cv boot replacement on my St focus ...... And .... Was pretty few and far between info wise on how to do the job start to finish so here is a write up (sorry no pics really)

1. Remove alloy wheel centre cap with a terminal screwdriver on drivers front wheel. This exposes a 13mm head stretch bolt with holds the driveshaft into the hub. Slacken this a few turns and then jack up the car, fit axle stands and then remove the road wheel.

2. Fully remove the stretch bolt that you have slackened and then slacken the nut that holds the trackrod end tight into the hub carrier. With the nut flush with the top of its thread give it a sharp blow with a hammer and it will pop free.(you may have to apply some wd40 and a 5mm Allen key to stop the balljoint spinning as you're trying to slacken it off fully) now fully remove the nut and place the steering rod aside out of harms way.

2.5 place a drift or punch (old long bolt is fine) in the hub centre hole and carefully make sure the driveshaft will move backwards up in the spline as these car sometimes be very tight and easier to free with the lower arm holding the hub still.

3. Remove the lower arm ball joint nut this is a 22mm spanner required. Mine came undone pretty easily but wasn't loose as such. With this slack (may again require a 6mm Allen key to hold ball joint thread from spinning with the locknut .. I had to cut down a 6mm Allen key for this to fit it in there)
With this nut removed give the lower arm a belt with a 2lb copper hammer downward or hit the hub carrier where the balljoint bolts through to shock it as it is held in a taper.

4. With the lower arm joint now free you can force the lower arm ball joint out of the hub carrier leaving the driveshaft, hub carrier, disc, calliper all held on the strut which allows you to drift/drive that driveshaft all the way out of its spline in the hub carrier. With the driveshaft out and free from the hub, place the hub turned by hand towards the front bumper end of the car out of your way.

5. Slacken the 2x 13mm head bolts holding the intermediate driveshaft bearing and remove them and the bearing cap. The drive shaft can now be pulled slowly to the floor & towards the drivers footwell to free the intermediate bearing from its register in the bearing carrier/bracket.

6. Place something under where the driveshaft you are removing enters the gearbox as some oil may come out of the gearbox and stain your lovely driveway!

7. Pull the drive shaft out of the gearbox gently and beware not to damage or strain any pipes that it may pass on its way out!




8. If you're just replacing the drive shaft then refitting is reverse of removal and a new stretch bolt is required from ford to retain the driveshaft in the hub. It should be torqued with the wheel on the ground to 45nm plus a quarter of a turn after the 45nm is achieved on your torque wrench!

8.5 place a whole load of masking tape over the splines on the driveshaft ends so no to damage or dirty them as its essential this is all kept very clean and spotless from now on.

9. To replace the inner cv boot (and outer in my case as I found ford sold inner and out cv boot kits cheaper as a pair than as separate lol) place the drive shaft in a vice on the fat centre part between the two cv joints.

10. Cut off or pry off all of the clips holding the cv joints in place and slice off carefully both cv boots exposing the cv joints internals.

11. I chose only to split the one c.v joint which is nearest the intermediate bearing, which was plenty enough to complete the job of changing both boots.
I wiggled and tapped the cv joint until the inner part of the cv separated from the larger driveshaft part with the female part attached. Wiped up any mess I made (a lot of mucky grease)

12. Using circlip pliers I removed the circlip holding the 3 race inner cv joint tripod onto the shaft. Then tapped it off the splines of the driveshaft which left you a clean shaft to slide the new cv boot onto the outer (wheel side) cv joint.

12.5 fill new boot with the ford grease in the sachet.

13. Fit the two ford clips on the outer cv boot and pinch the compressible part with some wire cutters as this tensions and secures the boot clips in place firmly

13.5 slide the small hole of the new inner cv boot up to meet the newly fitted outer cv boot so it's out of the way for now.

14. Refit the cv joint inner tripod (bit with round bearings on) and fit the new circlip that ford provide in the kit.

14.5 Wiggle carefully and tap the inner cv joint part back into the outer cv joint part. Ensure is moves around smoothly, undamaged!

15. Slide the new inner cv boot upwards to meet the larger part of the cv joint and fill with grease from 2nd sachet ford provide, bare in mind the inner uses a slightly different grease so try not to muddle them up!

16. Secure the new inner cv boot with clips provided in the kit.

17. Clean the shaft and refit it in reverse of removal remembering to torque the hub driveshaft bolt which is provided in the ford kit to 45nm plus quarter of a turn.



17.5 top up the gearbox oil level by removing the passengers front wheel and locating the awkwardly positioned 24mm headed hexagon fill plug next to the passenger driveshaft. Pump in fresh 75w/90 gearbox oil to correct level and torque up the plug to around 35nm. NOTE, I could only remove this plug by grinding down a 24mm socket to about 1" long lol! I advise you buy a slimline 24mm low profile socket to use.

18. Remember to torque up & refit your roadwheels and test drive steadily for the first few miles.

19. Acquire tea & biscuits as you're done!