Looking for a tool ?

[Michael C Henry]

I have a task to replace a pair of rubber bellows over the ends of a couple of enclosed drivelines. I need a tool to stretch the small end of the rubber bellows, about four or five inches accross over the belled end , about seven or eight inches accross. I had a coworker try to make one about twenty years ago. Have you seen one? What would I call the tool if I searched?

[Z-linkCobra]

I am a little confused as to what your exactly trying to do. If your trying to replace CV boots without taking the CV joint apart then you need to look at Snap-on tools. When I was a dealer some years back we had a tool that had 8 or s0 fingers on it. You hooked it up to air, placed the new boot over it and it would stretch it out and you could slide it over. The catch was you had to use the special boots that came from Snap-on. The standard boot would just rip apart if you tried to use it.

[Michael C Henry]

I'll check with the Snap On dealer when he comes in.

[mpanten]

I would imagine for the price of that tool from snap on you could replace it the old fashioned way several times.

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/tools...e=snapon-store. If this is what you are looking for you are looking at close to $700.00

[Michael C Henry]

I didn't see a size range but it could work. What i'm dealing with is a SEE tractor a Mercedes truck that the Army uses in many configureations. The boots(bellows) are around the front and rear enclosed drive shafts (torque tubes) where they meet the transfer case. Their manual only metsions the bellows when you're reconnecting the rear or front axle as if they were magically allready there. The small end of the bellows is the problem, stretching over the larger belled end, I managed the last one because I had a large, stronger, younger guy manage to stretch it first, then turn the bellows inside out, and wrestle (for me) it over the belled end and then turn it back right side out while on the smaller diameter of the shaft.