Well I was doing an oil change today and I noticed both my CV boots on the driver's side axle are torn to shit... I figure it's easier to change the whole shaft with a new one that already has greased boots than it is to change just the boots. Just wanted to know if it's a really hard job or it's pretty DIY that could be accomplished in my garage with a good set of handtools and prybars... also looking for tips to make the install easier... I searched without much success. I found the DIY for clutch replacement but they only vaguely explained how to remove the axles...
thanks,
Max

 

its not difficult, you just might run into some problems if your shat is rusty. you will want to atleast rent an electric impact wrench to get the axle nuts off, theyre 180 ft-lbs. me and my dad rented one for 30 some bucks when we changed my clutch, well worth it. youll also need a 36mm socket for the axle nut. we bought one for $16 at autozone. good luck man

 

I can get an impact from my gf's grandfather but the main thing I was wondering was, is it hard to take out the shaft once everything has been unbolted? lots of hammering?

 

Pretty much just comes out. You will probably have some little problem you can't predict, and that is where the loss of itme will come from.

 

no, you just kinda pry it out. I took out the intermediate shaft with the axle since i wasnt replacing it, so im not sure how hard it is to remove the axle from the inter. shaft. Id assume its no harder than removing the passenger side axle from the tranny, which wasnt hard at all. just a little prying with a pry bar and wiggling.

 

From what I remeber we had zero problems taking it out. just slid out for the most part, and depending on how clean, or rusted your car is.

 

ask zguy about his front axles. haha

 

definetly. your gonna need an impact gun. shouldnt be that hard, make sure to get some replacement cotter pins, shouldnt be that hard jsut lift it a bit, move the rotors outta the way and it should slide out. then your set to put in your new one . goodluck.

 

my mechanic did it really quick... but then again he knew what he was doing lol...

 

That tends to help

 

a buddy and I changed out the driver's side shaft this afternoon, the hardest part was getting the nut for the lower ball joint off... we didn't use airtools or anything, the whole process took about 45mins and we had to wait about 10 mins in the process for another friend to bring another socket, all in all we broke two ratchets This install is very DIYable....
EDIT: contrary to what most people think, you don't need airtools... just a breaker bar and an extra 2 feet of tubing might be necessary...

 

Just to get the center nut off the (I don't know what it's called, but the rim goes over the top of it) took a lot of effort for us. We had almost 8 feet worth of leverage from a steel tube, and still couldn't get it off. We got the air tool finally and it came right off...

 

breaker bar FTW

no matter what i work on with my car, some tool always breaks..and something always goes wrong..

unfortunately i have yet to be proven wrong

 

axle nut

and ya, thats a big bitch..when i did mine i had to run to CDN Tire and buy a new socket that would fit it..fuckin 10 bucks later she was off

 

breaker bar will eventually work, throw some ball sac in to it, but air tools are a huge time save and trouble e-lim-in-a-tor

if you have the right tools you shouldnt have a prob with this one, i did my passenger side in less than 10 mins and a rickard's red (does anybody else measure things in how many beers it takes you to do them?)

and yeah the axle nut is a slut, mine was rusty as shite, had to torch it......thats why i hate doing people's brakes for them

 

Dont remind me, those were a bitch. It took Sam 3 hours of pounding on them to get them out.

 

We had the brakes pushed in as hard as we could, and the wheel was still turning. I am a big guy and couldn't budge it one bit.