CV Joint & Axle/Shaft Replacement

Never had the axle out but I did recently do the hub bearing on that side. I'll back the center nut out and try to hammer the axle in.

I wouldn't hammer on it. Rotate the axle back and forth while pushing firmly. It should just pop in. If not, I recommend removing the axle to inspect the splines and snap ring.

When I was under there I tried pulling it into the tranny without any success but thats probably not going to happen with the center nut on. thanks for the advice, makes sense to not damage the snap ring.

EDIT: I could not get that bastard to move , and I have a 250 mile round trip tomorrow. It's gonna have to do. I'm going to bed...

My guess is that the snap ring is broken, and is lodged in there somehow. OR, it's just rusted in. My advice is to get it in the air and use a pry bar....

My advice is not to take a 250 mile drive with the CV shaft not seated all the way.

deekster_caddy wrote:

My advice is not to take a 250 mile drive with the CV shaft not seated all the way.

Believe it or not I remember seeing the axle like this before I took the 1000 mile round trip to Flagstaff and back. however I did not think much of it until I saw it again the other day. I'm going to pull the axle out and see whats going on.

Abaddon wrote:

My guess is that the snap ring is broken, and is lodged in there somehow. OR, it's just rusted in. My advice is to get it in the air and use a pry bar....

Thats the problem, there is not any really good place to use a plybar without damaging the boot.

Ok im seriously confused. I found the "secret" notch on the engine side of the axle which has a small notch in it to get a pry bar on. I could see the axle shift in a mm or so and slightly up but it would not pop in. I ended up removing the entire axle to see what the hell is going on. The snap ring on the end is not damaged. I finally ended up measuring the axle to compare it with the differential side on the transmission because I noticed after putting grease on the end of the axle, inserting it and then removing it, it appears that the end of the axle is going all the way until is hits the inside as noted by the grease being disturbed. This is what I came up with:

The axle from base to tip is 3.25" ( notice the "secret" notch on the base).

From the outside to the absolute back of the differential is just over 2.75". So either something is funky or the axle is apparently all the way seated even though it does not appear to be.

Alright. I rented a slide hammer and was able to get the hub/bearing out of the knuckle. However, the axle is still stuck to the hub and bearing. I tried using a 3 jaw puller pressing against the end of the axle with the jaws on the hub and it broke the puller. Yes, I sprayed the ever loving crap out of it with PB. Any suggestions?

Get a new axle? Or a bigger hammer... Do you have access to a hydraulic press? You could mount the bearing in the press and try to push the axle out of it. Maybe bring it to a local machine shop that has one?

I get to tackle this job soon. I just picked up a left axle since mine is vibrating and I'm starting to hear noise in the u-joints when I turn the wheels. As far as I can tell the right side is fine.

Start soaking the axles in PB now. You'll thank me later.

I probably should get on that.  After reading through the thread.  I'm thinking I should state my symptom and why I think my particular problem is the axle.  As far as I can tell this is just the left side. It started making noise/vibrating about 2 or 3 weeks ago and I thought at this time maybe it was the hub/bearing.  No grinding or any other noise though.  Only heard it from 30mph on up and it would change pitch the faster you were going.  Well I went down some bumpy roads this last weekend trying to make it worse.  So I coul try to determine for sure before taking everything apart.  Now the noise/vibration is louder and I can hear clicking when I turn the wheel at a stop left to right.  When moving I can't hear any clicking.  Still no grinding noise that I can tell.  That's why I'm thinking it is the axle and not the hub.  What do you guys think?

I think you're on the right track. It's most likely a CV with the symptoms you're describing. My advice is to buy a used OEM axle from a yard, Ed Morad comes to mind. These are around $40 and sometimes better than a rebuilt one like you'd buy at the local parts store. I say 'sometimes' because a few have had good luck with rebuilds, but it's hit or miss. OEMs seem to last a long time in most cases, as long as the boot stays intact. I'm still on my OEMs at 273k miles - they are almost bullet proof, but like a lot of things can fail at any time. Usually a torn boot is the cause. How do yours look?

Thanks for putting me in the right thread. I haven't seen any sign that the boot is damaged at all. That was the first thing I had looked for. As of tonight when I got off work I noticed I now have a louder clicking noise when I hit a bump or when I turn.

Make sure you inspect the wheel lugs by torquing them to 100 lb-ft. If one is loose or broken, it can make a similar sound.

Once you have the hub removed, you can easily pull the shaft out and it should be obvious if a CV joint is bad. It will feel loose and sloppy. It is possible to pull the shaft on the right side without removing the hub - not sure about the driver side. Good luck.

Thanks Aaron. I figured I would try without removing the hub first and if I have to then so be it. I will make a point to check my wheels. I did put them on a couple of months ago and thought I had gone back and torqued them a second time. Hopefully it will get me though till this weekend when I have the time to do this.

I had a clicking over speed bumps once. All the lug nuts were on. Went to break them loose and one of the lugs came off with the nut! It was causing the noise all along.

You will need to take the tie rod off, which isn't bad. Then loosen the spindle nut, turn the knuckle and see if you can slip the axle through. It's not easy, not even sure it's possible on the left side.

Thanks for the advice.  I will do that.  I'm going to check the torque on the lugs tomorrow morning just to see where they are at and then I suppose see what happens when I remove them this weekend. I didn't think about it earlier, but is there a seal I need to worry about replacing?

AA wrote:

You will need to take the tie rod off, which isn't bad. Then loosen the spindle nut, turn the knuckle and see if you can slip the axle through. It's not easy, not even sure it's possible on the left side.

It's tight, but if you REALLY force it you can. If not the knuckles and struts have to come off.

I had planned on disconnecting the strut to try to give me more room to work with. Can anyone tell me what the torque is for those bolts on the strut and then the axle nut torque spec?

Axle nut torque is 107 lb-ft. The lower strut bolts are 130-ish I think

Thanks!

When I disconnected my struts, I had to use one of these to get the bolts out. They're in there pretty good in my experience.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0089QSBU8?pc_redir=1408887724&robot_redir=1

J. Chris Davis wrote:

Thanks for putting me in the right thread.  I haven't seen any sign that the boot is damaged at all.  That was the first thing I had looked for.  As of tonight when I got off work I noticed I now have a louder clicking noise when I hit a bump or when I turn.

Just to clarify - are you talking about a repetitive clicking like a rotational click, or a click that only happens when you hit a bump, more like a sharp creak? It sounds to me like you are describing something to do with the sway bar. The noise you describe is similar to what we experienced when the middle sway bar bushing was tearing out of the subframe.

It wasn't until we had the car up on ramps (loaded suspension) and were bouncing it up and down (gently) with somebody under the car that we finally figured out the problem.

I would not expect a CV joint to click because of a bump. A turn, yes, but a bump? that takes us down a different path.

What if you just push up and down on the fender, get one corner bouncing, then the other corner? Can you reproduce the sound that way?