I banged out the studs and ground off the tops of the ribs. They are still snug in there, but not a press fit anymore. It made the CV axle so much easier to put in.

 

update:

Finally got it back together. Not gonna lie, but it wasn't as easy as the manuals suggest. I've got a 92 22re delux, and I'm beginning to think they aren't all the same based on what people reported in putting their axle back in.

Not only did I remove the shock and stabllizer bar (because they space between was about 1/2 less than the diameter of the axle joint, I went ahead and disconnected the bottom ball joint from the knuckle so that I could get a few more inches of space to put the axle back on the differential.

I almost didn't have to do that last step, but it was taking well over an hour to make any real progress. Driver side was taking me 1/2 the day. Once I decided to drop the bottom ball joint, the passenger side took 20 minutes to put back together. (sans brake bleeding, putting the tires back on)