CV Axle Replacement Tips Options

[IfWeChoose]

I had quite the journey working on my car the past few days. I replaced the cv axle on the driver's side and just wanted to share a few tips with you. Your experience might be different than mine, but I'm just wanting to put this information out there.

Tips:
>>>>Get a damn slide hammer: Autozone rents them and you need the FWD axle adaptor. You WILL get the axle out using this method. Place the axle adaptor immediately behind the dust shield on the transmission side of the axle and screw in the slide hammer afterward. It's a tight fit to try to screw on the adaptor before placement.
>>>>Keep your old axle's c-clip. I had an issue with the ring being too thick on the new axle, so I pulled the ring off of the old one.
>>>>If the new axle will not go in, be very patient. Putting the c clip with the opening facing down did not help me. Instead, I turned the axle an 1/8 of a turn after every couple of pushes and it popped right in before a second full rotation.
>>>>Replace your transmission oil seal. I did not replace mine on the first go round, but managed to mess up the seal either during the removal of the old axle, or the installation of the new. I had gear oil spewing out while driving, idling and even during my nightmares.
>>>>You don't need a fancy tool to remove the old seal. Just use the largest crescent style wrench you own. A 19mm worked just fine for me. Stick one part of the open end just behind the seal and pop it out. I learned this trick from working on mountain bike suspension systems. Clean the seat after removing the old seal.
>>>>A setting tool would be very handy to install the new seal but is not necessary. Level out the new seal and push (with both hands) on the seal all around and with even pressure. Start with light pressure and build up as the seal is seated better. Be sure you're pushing at opposite sides at all times - 12 and 6 o'clock, 3 and 9 o'clock, and so on. For the last bit you can position the old seal on top of the new seal and hammer the edges to seat the seal fully. I used a breaker bar to hammer at the old seal which was pushing in the new seal.
>>>>Push down on the rotor to reinstall the lower strut mounts. This was a no brainer for me but might be difficult for some.

I've done so many axle replacements but never on a car with as many miles as mine. You might not have all of these issues but I would love to make life less miserable for those that will.


Care to add any tips?

[enderswift]

I had gear oil spewing out while driving, idling and even during my nightmares.

Lol. And I agree with the slide hammer tip. There's basically no point to trying without one of these. It turns 3 hours of frustration into 20 seconds

[IfWeChoose]

Seriously! Also, I forgot to mention my method of removing the 30mm axle nut. Forget all this pry bar, rim half on nonsense.

I simply used my floor jack lever and wedge it between the seat and brake pedal. If it doesn't work, just pump the brakes first, wedge it and slide the seat up as far as you can.

[VavAlephVav]

I had gear oil spewing out while driving, idling and even during my nightmares.

Lol. And I agree with the slide hammer tip. There's basically no point to trying without one of these. It turns 3 hours of frustration into 20 seconds

+1