I just got a Infiniti i30 1997. I'm doing a passenger side cv axle replacement and ran into some problems. I got the wheel bearing nut out and the lower strut mounting bolts out and the driveshaft from the knuckle out.

Then, I got those 3 little 12mm screws out from the middle of the shaft. On Pg 871 (FA-13), it says "remove right drive shaft from transaxle" but I can't even budge it. How do I get it out from the transaxle?

Also, what is the tool to put the new seal to the transaxle? Do I need to put a new seal? Is tranny oil going to come out when I remove the shaft from the transaxle?

Picture illustration:

Got my wheel bearing nut out

Removed the driveshaft from the knuckle.

Removed the 3 small 12mm nuts but I can't get the shaft to come out of the mount or from the transaxle.

My autozone rebuilt shaft with the 12mm screws

This is where the driveshaft goes into the transaxle. Will tranny fluid come out when I remove? Do I need to buy a new seal? What is the tool they mention in the manual?

Thanks for your answers.

Seems like you should be able to pry it out once the 3 bolts have been removed. Here's a thread about CV joint removal on a 94 Maxima but it should be close to what you have. Have you tried looking at YouTube?

zerothread?id=366618

Thank you for the link to that thread. That pretty much explains all the problems I have. I looked for a thread like that but didn't find it.

There are some youtube videos, esp. the ehow videoshttp://www.ehow.com/videos-on_....html

The guy just pulls it out and has no tranny fluid coming out. Some youtube videos show it coming out and some don't. But, the i30 seems like it has them coming out.

OK, time to put a bucket under the car and yank that sucker out.

Thank you.

Always put in a new tranny seal. I had a mechanicwho didnt and i had to pay $100

I worked on it last night and finished the job.

To take the CV out, I hammered on the part until it seperated a little bit. I drove in a small piece of metal to create a bigger wedge and then used my four way as a wedge to hammer the rest of it out. Maybe it would have been all easier with a nice set of pry bars and an air hammer but I was under there for a good hour or two getting the thing to move.



Got those two out.



I was expecting tranny fluid to gush all out but nothing came out. Maybe it's because I had it on jacks on both sides and the oil went somewhere else.



I didn't change the oil seal. The dealer said I would only get it on Tuesday if I ordered it on Friday. So, I just decided to reuse the old one.

I took it for a test drive and everything seemed to work good.

Here are the set of comments or things I found weird- the shop manual says remove the brake hose clip but I couldn't figure out what the brake hose clip was. It wasn't in any of the illustrations. It made the job a lot harder since the two hoses were really tight when I got the CV axle into and out of the hub. I thought it was the one that connected a hose to the bottom of the hub and was taking it out but the bolt head broke off. So, yeah, couldn't get that one out.- the manual talks about clips but I did the passenger side and it didn't have anything like that. I think it's talking about the driver's side on all of page 872.- the shop manual does not mention the torque for the bolts to the lower strut mounting bolts.

So, actually easy job but I made it take a whole day.Tools needed are- 36mm socket for the wheel bearing nut - 10, 12, 16, 17mm sockets- I used an 1/2" air impact wrench. - Jack that can raise it high and jack stands- Metal hammer and some pry bars- 12mm ratcheting flare wrench for the 3 nuts

Mechanic quoted me $120 for parts and around $100 for labor. I got the part from Autozone for $70 + taxes (- $10 core). But, since this was my first axle replacement, it took the whole day (two half days) and I got really really dirty with all the grease.
Modified by mr0x at 10:00 PM 3/6/2010

Very good! This thread will help other members in the future. As always, you can post questions as well as share know-how with other members.

If you kept the old axle you could look at it and see if it can bereused. If just the rubber boot is bad, you might could replace itonly. This would give you a spare CV axle

It was already clicking before. But I didn't open to look into the joint. I was afraid a lot of the black goop was going to slither down all over my garage floor.

I did the driver's side left CV axle also and it was supposed to be easy but it took the whole evening for me.

I took the axle out and everything was fine. It was getting the axle in there that was the problem. There is a ring and it is supposed to snap in there.

The trick was to line up the groove, and then grab the cv's other end standing next to the hub and give it a huge push to hear the click. Wasted almost 3 hours trying to slide it in, taking out screws and such, lying under the car. Anyway, a big tip for people who want to do the CV on the driver's side.

Torque for bolts-lower strut mounting is in the FA section p20
103-117 ft #
140-159 Newton meter

Clips for driveshaft is on page 15
Part 17 on the schematic
See Section 391 comment on top of page on Left hand side

Mr.Ox. Can you tell me precisely where you hammered the old CV Joint. I am having the same problem that you describe in that after everything else was done, I can not remove the joint from the car. It is very frustrating. There is very little room underneath. I do have pry bars, but I do not see any place to use them to dislodge the joint.