front axles, again

[Legacypusher]

I had my struts replaced a couple of weeks ago and now I have a vibration and what sounds like an axle knock, speed sensitive, which wasn't there before the swap. These axles have only about 30-40K miles on them, so I'm curious. Tires were balanced just a few months ago. Any chance the shop screwed something up?

I have searched the archives here and found lots of opinions about popping the ball joint, or not, to R&R axles. Is there a consensus about how best to do the job, and is it a reasonable job for a "pretty good" mechanic? A step by step photo how-to would be a great thing to see here. I have R&R'd axles on other fwd vehicles, but the old wagon sounds a bit more complicated than most.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Legacypusher]

Anyone? Any tricks I should know about R&R on the axles? I'd reallly appreciate some advice on this.

[skid542]

My 93' FWD sedan used to just eat axles, or more precisely the outer CV's. The best thing to do is get the lifetime warrenty ones and have a decent mechanic put them in for you and then when they die, let them cover the warrenty.

However, the next axle I need to do I'll do myself. The hardest part is getting the axle nut loose. Although I have heard tale of loosening the control arm such that you don't have to pop the axle nut but I am unsure of the details/feasibility of this. I'm wanting to say I heard it from BAC5.2 (a true drivetrain guru) but again, this is speculation.

Before you replace anything though, I pressume you have gotten underneath it with the wheel off the ground and given everything a good hard shake to see what's loose and what's tight?

And FWIW, there are plenty of stories of people who have ran the axles ragged until they finally die - including me. You can run a knocking axle a good while before it becomes a safety/driveability issue.

[Legacypusher]

Well, I'm an older guy, and a pretty good mechanic, but I still like to think that I am somewhat of a fun old fool to be around, what with enjoying a bit of whiskey and a cigar from time to time. I'm absolutely crazy about fly fishing, and I'm about to hit the San Juan, in NM, for some seriously large trout on tiny flies. It's just way too cool to fish there.

However, I'm not much into gambling about how long a half shaft will last when I'm on the road in the old gal.

I was just hoping for some good clues. One thought I had the last time I had them changed was why not just swap them side to side every 50K miles? I suppose it's really dumb, but the wear would be on the other side of the bearings, and the shafts are the same part numbers, so they must be identical. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but what do I know? Anyone ever tried that?

[Legacypusher]

Got the new shaft this am and went down to my gal's carport around noon, after gathering some tools, the jack and jackstand, etc. Put the extension pipe on the 1/2" drive breaker bar to crack the axle nut and proceeded to bend the bar like a pretzel. It was a POS anyway, el cheapo. Went to Sears and bought a decent one, came back and started again. Cracked the nut this time and got the car up on the jackstand and pulled the wheel and nut. Got lucky when the axle shaft wasn't stuck in the hub. I hit it once with a block of wood and a hammer and it slid back just fine. Then I had three options. Alldata says to remove transverse link from cross member, half the bbs guys say pop the ball joint, the other half say pull the strut bolts. Cross member didn't work, and the ball joint was a bitch; neither would budge, so I went with the strut.

Then the fun started. I busted a 3/8" breaker bar (the male plug that goes into the socket) trying to get the strut bolts loose, so had to walk back to my house to get a 1/2" 19mm socket for the new bar. At least I had one, and it's only about a block to walk. Back to M's and got the strut loose and wrestled the spline out of the hub, not easy. Next, I had to drive the spring pin out of the tranny end, which involved crawling under and trying to hold a punch where I could see it and pounding with a hammer. Had no punch the right size, of course, so had no luck. Another walk back to my house for a break and a search for something that might work. I had read on the bbs that something 3/16" would do it, but it needed to have a flat, round face. I rooted around and found an old nut driver socket with a 5" or so shaft on it from some old cheapo kit where you have a handle that these shafts slip into, and they have 3/16" shafts, determined by a micrometer that I had lying around, so I ground the little flanges off the sides that grip the handle and it worked perfectly after I again walked back to M's.

The new axle went in pretty easily; well, with a little wrestling on the hub end. Lined up the strut and tightened it up, using my clever marks on the cam bolt, and tightened the axle nut as much as I could w/car up. I had read that you shouldn't loosen or install nut completely on the ground or you might harm the wheel bearing. I lowered car enough so that the tire was partially on the pavement and tightened some more. Then torqued to my body weight when fully on the ground. Popped on the hubcap and took a test drive after loading up all the tools, shop light, cord, yadda yadda.

Guess what.. the friggin' noise is still there. This happened once before when I swore it was the passenger side and it wasn't. This time I just knew it was driver's side, and there was noticeable play in the hub end CV joint. Damn. It may have been both sides, who knows? Back to the parts store, where the manager had ordered two axles when I ordered my one, so the the other one was right there. Now that I know what I'm doing and have the right tools maybe the pass. side won't be too bad. Bbs guys all say driver's side is a bitch, pass. side a piece of cake. We will see. What the hell, I was thinking of doing both of them anyway--I'm planning on driving the old gal as long as I can. I figure I can get another 100K out of her, easy, and have lifetime warrantees on these axles, and now have the tools and knowledge to R&R them.

Guess I will have another fun day tomorrow, and hopefully a lot shorter one. BTW, I got these shafts from O'Reilly Auto Parts. $80 each for new shafts, $5 core charge. Remans are $60 w/ $60 core, and have lifetime w, too. I figured for $20 more each I would go with new ones. We will see how well they last.

So, how was your day?

[douglas vincent]

HAHA, laughing WITH you, not at you, since I know that kind of pain.


Yeah, axles are "easy" when all goes right. Good luck!

[Legacypusher]

Well, the passenger side axle was a bitch, too. Friday the 13th? I broke the Sears 1/2" breaker bar trying to loosen the axle nut. It wouldn't budge AT ALL. I went back to Sears and got another one--they looked at me kinda funny, but replaced it. I called my buddy at a garage for help, and he got a 3/4" drive and the 5 or 6' handle from his floor jack and even that wouldn't budge it until I stood on the brakes with the car running. He's a big strong guy, and he said it was the toughest axle nut he had ever seen, but he managed to crack it for me, bless his heart.

Another learning lesson on this side. The cat converter and O sensor make it almost impossible to get to the pin out of the tranny end of the axle from underneath unless you have a long, long punch. Of course, I didn't. Next time I will come prepared with some proper tools. I managed to punch the pin out from above, but it was a long process, with very little room to swing a hammer reaching into all the crap in there. Obviously, I couldn't go get any tools at that point. Installation was equally frustrating, but I finally got the new pin in and the rest went fine.

What I learned was that you need to have a long (18" or so) piece of good stiff 3/16" steel rod to punch out the pin, and an equally long piece of 1/4" or so rod to replace it from above when doing the passenger side axle. That would save a lot of frustration and time, IMO.

I know, I know.. I made a bunch of dumb mistakes. I was a newbie at this procedure but now I have done the job on both sides, and with the proper tools it won't be as bad next time. And next time, I will have the proper tools.

It's done, and no noises from underneath. Ahh.. As dumb as it sounds, I did get some satisfaction out of doing it myself. I guess I will give the old gal a wash and wax this weekend to celebrate her new struts and axles. She's ready for a road trip!