I've watched tons of youtube videos on this, but it seems everyone in the comments has an easier way that's not shown in a video. What's the easiest / fastest way to remove the axles? I'll be doing the work on a lift, so I can knock out the passenger side from below as the service manual suggests, getting the suspension removed in the simplest way possible is best. I see people taking off the caliper, basically taking apart the whole hub to get the axle out, don't think that's needed.

I was thinking, upper ball joint, unbolt lower shock fork, remove shock fork, rotate hub and then pull the axle out, or would I need to disconnect the sway bar bushings as well? I see some removing the lower ball joint as well, but I think I should be able to swing it free without doing this? Any trick here to save me time?

 

I would go for lower ball joint, tie rod, and maybe take the caliper off as well (it's just 2 bolts, not even 1 full minute to take it off with a power tool).

Lower ball joint - remove the nut that holds it, put jack under the rotor, and try to lift the knuckle (if you're worried then put piece of wood between jack and rotor, don't use much force when lifting). Then tap lower control arm with hammer where it meets with the ball joint (on the side of control arm, maybe thread the nut couple turns so if you hit it by accident you don;t mess up the threads). Very easy on the lift as you can swing the hammer and hit your mark.

Then tie rod end - again remove bolt and hit the knuckle where tie rod connects with hammer.

I usually like to take the caliper off, and maybe take all of those 10mm head (m6) bolts that hold the abs sensor wire. That way you can move knuckle however you want. Leave the upper control arm connected - this way it will hold the knuckle for you.

if you do all of that you can swing the knuckle completely to the side, and maybe hold it with rubber / ratcheting strap. Plenty of room to do the rest.

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...5at-tl-980266/

 

I did unbolt tie rod, unbolt upper ball joint, unbolt shock fork, remove lower shock fork, redo upper ball joint, undo lower ball joint. and unbolt the abs sensor cables and brake line from the knuckle just in case. And that gave me enough space to pull the axle out off the knuckle, then have someone pull the axle while I used a hammer and pry bar one the inner part of the axle to get it out.