[4th gen] Axle Replacement Job Problems

[OwnerCS]

As I work on this project to document 4th gen axle & CV replacement I hit a problem removing the old axle.

I removed the three 12 mm bolts so I can separate the shaft from the carrier in the pictures below. As you can see the old shaft parts are rusted together. I tried to break it free using a screwdriver and hammer. With the car on a jack stand, I really can't get much of a swing on a hammer and chisel or screwdriver to break this part free.

Do I need to use an air hammer/chisel to break the axle free from the carrier unit?

I may need to spend $200 on a compressor and air hammer to complete this DIY job. LOL

A picture of the old unit that I'm trying to separate.



The new unit where the axle bolts to the carrier.



Can anyone advise on the issue I will have separating the driver side axle below.

[Speedy13]

PB Blaster is your friend

[the converted]

Pulling the driver side axle out should just be wedging in a screwdriver and prying. You should be able to get a long screw driver through the diff once you have the driver side out and beat on it that way. Make sure you aren't hitting the cross shaft while your doing that. If you can't do that, you're going to have to cut the boot on the passenger side and unbolt the the bracket that the bearing rides in and bring the passenger side out as two separate pieces (ask me how I know this pain in the a** fact)

[whitediamond642]

I had the same issue on my friend's I30. Here's what we did:

Unbolt the bracket that you are trying to separate from the axle that way you can slide the axle out of the transmission. There are three 14mm bolts, if I remember correctly, bolting it to the block.

At that point, you can either remove the lower control arm to wedge the whole thing out (not what we did) or you can have a friend hold the whole assembly out a bit while you take a hammer and chisel and separate the axle and bracket (this worked for us, though took about 15 minutes of striking).

With the axle out of the transmission, you can get a pretty good swing on the axle and rotate the unit to get at it in several places.

After we finally got it separated, we were able to work the axle and bracket out separately.

To make reinstallation easier, I wire-wheeled the inside of the bracket and put a bunch of anti-seize in there in case we ever have to replace his axles again.

That's what worked for us. Good luck on it, man.

[OwnerCS]

Hey WD - Thank you for the tip! As it turns out, I bought a couple of different size chisels a couple days ago to take that approach. I think I will also try to get the car lifted up a couple of inches higher on the jack stands to get just a little more swing on it. I can see removal going exactly as you stated.

I guess there is no issue with pulling the driver side (the shorter one) axle?

Thanks again,
Craig

[whitediamond642]

I had no issue with the driver's side. I used a pry bar between the axle and transmission to get past the snap-ring (just be carefull not to hit the seal). After the passenger side, the driver's side will feel like a breeze. Good luck with everything.

[OwnerCS]

Today I was able to remove both axles.. I can see light through the transmission.

I used a chisel break loose the carrier. I’ve got lots of pictures.

I think I can replace the seal on the driver side. I can reach up and feel the seal for the passenger side axle. I’m not sure how I could replace that seal without having some special tool to pull and replace it without removing the exhaust pipe – that is in the way..

Neither seal leaks so I may defer replacing the passenger side and only do the driver side replacement this weekend.

[the converted]

The kind of sketchy way I swapped mine involved a friend with a hammer and a closet rod. I was under the car holding the seal in place and positioning the rod and had my friend hitting the rod lightly with a hammer. Took a while being careful and making sure it went in as straight as possible. I'm pretty sure I just used a screwdriver to tear the old one out.