yotaman

Last weekend my brother and my uncle-n-law called me up and asked if I wanted to take the runner out to one of there friends property and try her out. I said sure let’s do it, so we did. We went down an old ATV trail that they had made to ride there 4wheelers and dirt bikes, at the end of this trail there’s a mud pit. Well there’s a go around for the 4wheelers and dirt bikes but it’s not big enough for the runner, so there’s no other option then to hit the mud pit. I was cool with that, that was until I get into the middle and the runner just sinks down in the mud. I press the throttle to keep the momentum up and when I get out of the mud pit the runner weights and extra 50+ pounds and now I hear this loud click, click, click noise, immediately I know what it is, the CV-axle. The bottom boot was already broken and it was on my list of thing’s I would have to replace so no big deal. We had a blast and I now know how to put in a CV-axle plus now have it ready for the trail. I replaced 2 of the spin bolts with normal bolts, lock washers and nuts.

For anyone interested I found it easier to replace the CV-axle with the 2 bolts removed and the diff jacked up a little with a floor jack. If you take a piece of 2x4 and a floor jack and jack up the diff just a hair on the out tub (drives side is the one I replaced) it gives you that little bit of space to make putting the axle in just a little easier.

I found replacing the axle a PITA. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make it any easier?

For reference here are the steps I preferred:

1. Take lug nuts and tire off (this is probably optional)
2. Have a friend step on the brake as you take the 6 axle nuts off (you’ll need a breaker bar, at least I did.)
3. Take hub off (on autos it’s a gold cap, a gold bolt and washer, then 6 nuts and washers, then the hub (FYI: if you hit the outside of the hub with a hammer those cone washers will pop out. I did not know this but finally figured it out.)
4. Slide the axle out just above the back of the lower control arm (it’ll take some persuasion to get it out)
5. Take the old axle and put it in a garbage bag, no wait you’d better make that 2 or 3, you do not want that axle grease all over everything trust me.
6. Now the fun part, getting the new one back in.
7. If you have an air hammer now’s the time to pull it out because I’d remove 2 of those bolts if I where you (I did), just hit them on the ends a couple of times with it and they’ll come out.
8. I replaced my driver side axle so this maybe different for the passenger side. If you’re under the car on the drivers’ side and are looking up I found it easier to get the axle in on the left side on the diff (it would be the back side if you’re looking at the front of the car).
9. Put your hub back on in reverse order as it was taken off.
10. Have a friend hold the brake as you put the nuts back on. Don’t put the 2 bolts you removed with the air hammer back in you want to replace them with regular bolts, lock washers and nuts. I think it would be ok to drive the car with 2 bolts missing until you get the new ones as long as you didn’t try going off road or anything, that’s your call.
11. Put the tire and lug nuts back on and you’re ready to go.
12. Now give your friend a pat on the back and a cold beer, wait don’t forget about yourself (you did do all the hard work).

Now here’s my disclaimer: This is how I did it, this way may not work for everyone. I’m in NO way responsible for any damage that comes from using the above suggestions.

I just wanted to share my experience with replacing my broken CV-axle I hope everyone enjoyed, now go break your own ˟˟˟˟˟ .

If there where any spelling errors in this document or the grammar was not to your liking I don’t care, what do you expect I graduated from a public school and used a crappy piece of software made by Micro$oft to check it.

green91runner

yea, did something similar when i replaced my passenger side.. was about an hour of screwing around... theres a couple threads on here with tips

Robinhood150

Next time you can also unbolt the bottom of the shock, disconnect the swaybar, and remove the upper bumpstop. Lift the vehicle so that the suspension extends all the way and the axle should slide right out and back in.

I had a harder time with the passenger side, I had to take out 3 of the studs, rather than just two for the drives side.

yotaman

My bad I forgot to mention the shock, the sway bar and the bump stop. I removed the shock, the sway bar and the upper bump stop but it was still a PITA for me. If the a-arms were at full drop I couldn’t even move the axle in. I had to jack up the a-arms an inch or so to get the axle in. I couldn’t understand why it was like that.

green91runner

yea, i had to disconnect the shock and the sway bar end-link (how it broke , $87 from dealer, just for the link)

4Hummer

Mine was a PITA As well. I actually Knocked myself out COLD. doing the install and almost had to go to the hostpital.

I was trying to get a little more room between the upper and lower A-arms. So I stuck a Bottle jack in-between the arms (On an angle I may add) and started turning the jack. Well as you can all guess the Cheesey bottle jack Broke and the hockey puck sized piece of steel flew off the top and beemed me RIGHT in the noodle. :cry:

I don't know how long I was knocked out for. But when I came too my wife (Who was out shopping) Was back home, and squating beside me with a towel on my head. I know have a Harry Potter look alike scar on my forhead. :pat:

Yeah I know Im a DUMB A$$

SteveO

Wow! Glad your OK. That is one thing that keeps me on my toes, safety. I know my wife can't lift my fat but, and most of the time I'm in the garage by myself. She does come check on me during feeding time but, we have to be extra carefuly when working alone.