Thanks for that Alex, I will get to it when the grandaughter gives me some spare time.
I am still trying to work out what is the most contrary vehicle, the 164 or the old '58 Rover 90 I have.
Robbo

Well personally, I'd go for the 164, because complexity doesn't necessarily put me off - RUST and Cellulose Paint does
Just to give the other side of the story, i.e. the other (normal) way to replace the CV joint boot, here it is.
(This is not the way I did mine, obviously, but I have done this in the past on smaller FWD cars like my Uno.)
1. Remove hub nut, probably done up to at least 200Nm for the 164. Maybe use tent pole as breaker-bar extension and have friend stand on brake pedal. This step could be five minutes or a couple of hours, depending on how many breaker-bars break, or whether you have to drive to Repco for a special large socket. Sorry I can't remember what size...
2. Unbolt strut. May need to unbolt brake caliper if brake hose short.
3. Should be just enough room to slide outer CV joint out of hub with steering knuckle swivelled outward and steering full right-lock
4. Cut off outer CV boot clips and slide boot back along driveshaft.
5. Use heavy mallet to knock CV joint off driveshaft, perhaps hitting the centre part of the joint (small), or maybe the outer part, who knows.

I hate this sort of violence (even against hardened steel - it gets burred or splinters), so I held onto brake disc and tried to use hub assembly (with CV put back in) as 'slide hammer' - that didn't work, so don't bother trying
5b. Make sure you have removed CV from hub before trying to knock-off with mallet. Otherwise you are trying to accelerate the whole mass of the hub + brake disc etc. when you hit the joint. I remember one similar job (Lancia Thema) where I tried this (to save the trouble of undoing hub nut). It didn't work, so I decided to reassemble and remove hub nut, removed CV from hub, and then it popped off the driveshaft on the first hit. Newton's law: impact force is proportional to mass (the hammer) and (de)acceleration. That explains the use of a heavy hammer, and hitting something with no 'give' in it so that acceleration is as instant as possible, but I can't explain the logic of lightening the thing that's getting hit... I find if you are trying to transfer momentum to a heavy object, you get less force. The lighter the item you're hitting, the more force it gets.*
6. Assuming step 5. worked, dismantle and clean CV joint, repack with grease and fit new boot. Make sure snap ring evenly in driveshaft groove and knock CV joint back onto driveshaft.
7. Replace other removed parts and marvel at the way this approach only took an hour and a half compared with four hours for the other approach
However (as you can guess) I've had a lot of grief getting CVs off driveshafts and then back on again, so these days I prefer not to try, unless the circlip is easily accessible as it is for the inner CV.
Cheers,
-Alex
*EDIT: OK, I'll have another go. Conservation of Momentum applies (for the first collision of hammer-to-CV joint, both hard materials, no deformation so - confusingly - an
elastic collision because momentum and energy are conserved). The hammer has a certain mass and velocity, and therefore a certain momentum. If the CV is still bolted into the hub (+bearings+disc+caliper+delicate ABS sensor etc.) then the velocity of this large mass will be a lot less than that of the hammer. Therefore, in the second effective collision of the CV joint against the snap ring (a more
inelastic collision), since kinetic energy is 1/2m*v-squared, this decreased velocity results in very much less energy to compress the spring-tension of the snap ring, and furthermore, the 'give' in the snap ring lengthens the 'time' of this second collision and takes up some of the kinetic energy, and so that reduces the impulse force, and then there's static vs. sliding friction, and really there's lots of things to consider but I am happy enough with the first conservation-of-momentum argument - the bit that says that the heavier the item you are hitting, the less velocity you will impart. Of course, you didn't want to know any of this, but I was concerned.
I preferred leaving the outer CV joint on the driveshaft.
