Alright guys,
I bought Bilstien 5100's, and had a tire shop install them. When I moved from Oregon, my floor jack and jack stands didn't make it with me.
After waiting nearly 3 hours at the shop, they finally got everything on and aligned, sweet! But it was dark out.
The second I got home I pulled in the garage and got the lights out to check everything over and re-measure, etc. The front right outer CV boot has been knicked by a tool or a shock and has a small rip now, and is just starting to let grease out. Great. This was the reason I started doing all the work on my own rigs years ago. I've been under this truck several times recently and this rip is new, just barely had a drop of grease until I touched it and more came it. It is definitely a fresh cut.
So I need to call the shop first thing in the morning and make them fix this.
My question is, can just the boot be replaced on these, or are they more likely to replace the entire halfshaft assembly to make it easier on their part? I don't particularly want some cheap knock off brand remanufactured halfshaft assembly, but I also don't want them to tear the joints up by seperating everything to replace the boot. Should I just demand factory parts and see what happens?

After seeing how slow they work, now I'm afraid it's going to take them all day to fix this, and the shop is 40 minutes from home...

 

a new oem cv shaft will cost you blood. i honestly recommend replacing the boot, as remans are oftentimes of unknown quality. i personally have rebuilt both my cv shafts, yes its messy, and a PITA, but its worth the peace of mind knowing that you have your quality oem units.

chances are, yes, they are likely to stick a reman in there. i would honestly replace the boot myself. a haynes manual outlines the procedure pretty well.

 

Typically I would do it myself, but as I said, I didn't get all of my tools here with me when I moved. All I have is a hi-lift jack and I'm not about to crawl under the truck without a floor jack and jack stands. I need to buy a jack anyway, but since I just paid someone to do this I'm not about to go spend the money right now. It would eat into my tire fund too.
I will request that they replace the boot then. I don't feel it is fair to swap in a cheaper part (reman) and get my truck back with cheaper parts than it went in with.

 

CV boots are usually the only replacement needed. If the repair is not done, eventually the grease in the joint will get clotted with dirt and get nasty, causing the joint fail. However if you catch the torn boot soon enough then its all the repair that is needed. Otherwise you buying an axle.

 

Thanks for the reply.
I should have worded it differently. I was mostly wondering what a shop is most likely to do. I know some places hate seperating the joints and replacing boots. Comparing the cost of a boot and the labor to a reman with core, the reman part is probably cheaper/easier for them. We will see. If I get screwed and get a reman half shaft I'll keep the old one and replace the boot at home. When I get a floor jack I'll swap the Ford part back in and have a spare

 

It probably depends on the shop. I know cost is about 50$ for a complete reman so most shops would rather go that route rather than messing with rebuilding it if isn't worth their time.