Got them in (Axles)

[Legacy777]

Well a quick run to my buddy's shop and we had the axle nut off and on in under a minute....apparently my impact wrench was having issues last night, or the pb blaster did wonders overnight.

So I drive back home, loosen the bolt.....I started to try and take off the lower control arm....that mofo wasn't budging, and the axle wouldn't come out even with wheel turned. So I did what ciper did, and IMO it's a hell of a lot easier then screwin with the lower control arm and ball joint. I took off the bolts holding the strut on. I scribed along the hub where the strut sat, and just re-aligned everything when I put it back together.

I punched out the roll pin from underneith on both sides, and did it before removing the axles from the stubs. They both pretty much just pulled out. Aligned and put in new axles. I crimped the roll pins a little so they would get started in the holes. Took me like 15 min do the passenger side.

Anyways....they're done, put some anti-seize on the axle nut and retorqued everything down.

One thing I did notice is that the outer boot on the passenger side looks squished.....

here's the pics...just a few. http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... s/cvaxles/

Anyone think what I did with the axle & strut body won't work....and think I should get things re-aligned? I don't see where else there would movement, and if I aligned everything correctly I should be fine right?

[HomeSlice]

josh the camber will be off but if u marked the houseing u should be good- i got this handy camber gauge which is basicly just a level with a magnet to measure the camber. seems to be pretty acurate. u can get one for like 5 bones. one of my axle boots are also like your which bothers me but it should be fine. i was going cut the clamp and put a new one on but flunk it. i always change the axles now from the strut. i usta do it from the ball join the a arm but that always ends up riping the boot a lil. when i tryed to change the ball joint one time i cracked the spindle where the ball joint goes in. it was so rusted in there.

[vrg3]

Awesome, Josh!

apparently my impact wrench was having issues last night, or the pb blaster did wonders overnight.

Letting PB Blaster soak overnight does do wonders. It may have been a combination of both.

Anyways....they're done, put some anti-seize on the axle nut and retorqued everything down.

Is there a torque specification for the axle nut? Did you reduce the spec because of the antiseize?

Is it worth putting antiseize on the splines too?

Anyone think what I did with the axle & strut body won't work....and think I should get things re-aligned? I don't see where else there would movement, and if I aligned everything correctly I should be fine right?

Well, your camber may be very very slightly off... since your marking it by hand and lining it up by eye isn't as accurate as an electronic alignment rack. But Subarus are (relatively speaking) fairly indifferent to small camber variations from what I understand, and you'll probably be fine. You could check it with a camber gauge like homeslice describes or just use a plumb bob, a ruler, and some trigonometry.

[entirelyturbo]

Cool! Impressions? Did it fix your problem?

Haha, Josh, no offense, but you don't seem like you wanna work too hard ... Of course the XT wasn't my daily at the time, you have a time constraint ...

What I do is put a breaker bar in between the knuckle and control arm, right next to the balljoint, and use that as a lever to hit on to separate the two... My Legacy's left side took about 10 minutes of pounding to come loose. My XT is a different story though. That little number took probably over an HOUR of pounding with a heavy sledgehammer!!! Then I had to swap the balljoint out, which was fossilized into the control arm. That was another half-hour using the same technique with a tie-rod fork... But hey you got it done, whatever works for you... I personally wouldn't trust my eye in setting the strut bolt back for alignment... Glad to hear you got it done though

[Legacy777]

I figured if anything....I gave myself a little more negative camber....which the way I drive....I don't think it'll hurt anything.

These camber gauges....where exactly do they attach to? Any idea where I can get one?

Yeah....i don't know why the old boots were like that??


vrg3 the torque spec I found in the manual was like 140 ft-lbs. No i didn't reduce it....I don't think I can cause any damage to those axles. Plus....the torque I applied felt about right. You know how you can feel when you have just enough torque aplied to the nut/bolt? After as much crap as i've taken apart and put back together I've gotten quite good at it. I very rarely use a torque wrench. About the only stuff I use a torque wrench on is big important nuts/bolts like the axles or crank pulley....and if I ever did head gaskets or built a motor I'd probably use one there too.

I didn't put anti-seize on the splines. I'm not sure it'd be worth doing. There's grease and stuff in there.....however the axles have been removed before so it's possible they were more of a pain when they were first done.


I really didn't notice any difference, however I haven't driven it much. The problem with vibration was pretty much a one time deal.....it hasn't come back, so I don't know if it was axle related or not. The old axles did have a little bit of movement in them. The new ones were definitely tighter.

No offense taken.....why work hard when you can work smart Even if I do have to get an alignment.....$60 is well worth me not getting pissed off, breaking something, and not having a car.


One thing I didn't mention is the difference in boots. The OEM boots seem to be a stiffer thicker rubber then the cvaxles.com boots. I'm not sure exactly why, or if the newer boots are a different compound.....I'm going to call them today and pick their brains. Other thing is that on the OEM boots there is a rubber O-ring type thing on the outer boot in the vallies of the boot. I was told it's there to help keep the boot from tweaking out when you turn hard.....helps prevent premature boot death....or something to that nature.

[vrg3]

These camber gauges....where exactly do they attach to? Any idea where I can get one?

There are a few different types... but most of them don't actually attach to anything; you kind of hold them against the top and bottom of the wheel or something.

You could make a simple gauge yourself... get a 32mm socket that fits over the axle nut. Attach a straightedge to the surface where you'd normally put in the wrench. Also attach a string with a weight at the end. Then, when you attach the apparatus to the axle nut, the angle between the string and the straightedge will represent your camber. You could somehow attach a protractor to the whole thing and make it self-contained if you wanted to.

vrg3 the torque spec I found in the manual was like 140 ft-lbs. No i didn't reduce it....I don't think I can cause any damage to those axles. Plus....the torque I applied felt about right. You know how you can feel when you have just enough torque aplied to the nut/bolt?

Yeah, I know exactly the feeling you're talking about... It's just that lube can change the feel too... But I think you're right; the axle threads aren't exactly fragile. And I don't think the torque number is as critical as most.

I didn't put anti-seize on the splines. I'm not sure it'd be worth doing. There's grease and stuff in there.....however the axles have been removed before so it's possible they were more of a pain when they were first done.

I guess the grease kind of does that job.

No offense taken.....why work hard when you can work smart ;) Even if I do have to get an alignment.....$60 is well worth me not getting pissed off, breaking something, and not having a car.

Hehe... I think I'm going to try to use an actual ball joint separator instead of a prybar or breaker bar and see how that goes. Cost aside, I don't really want to have to take the time to get my car aligned.

One thing I didn't mention is the difference in boots. The OEM boots seem to be a stiffer thicker rubber then the cvaxles.com boots.

You know, several Subaru owners have told me to get Subaru remanufactured axles for my car. They say the aftermarket ones never last as long, and tend to go again after only 20 or 30 thousand miles.

I bet the primary difference between different aftermarket-remanufactured axles is just boot quality. Axles don't normally fail unless you're pumping way too much torque through them, or the CV boots tear.

[Legacy777]

yeah I talked to them today about the boots, and they said not to worry, they've been using these boots for a long time.

So we'll see how the cvaxles.com axles hold up.

[cbose]

I had to renew ALL 4 CV boots about a month ago down here in NZ.
I just rebuilt them at the bench. In my case the boots were long gone.
Both outer boots were wide open on even modest turns and there was
a lot of water and junk in them. I was kind of prepared for the worst.
At least one outer joint was beginning to click a bit.

Cleaned up at the bench the joints looked fine. No pitting. Races slightly
polished. Bye the way, I think I've read since in numerous places that
the outer joint can't be taken apart, but it is a completely standard
joint -- it comes apart like all the rest. You twist it around and at
just the right angle, the bearings `pop' out, one at a time.
I got boots from a local CV rebuilding house since they were cheaper and
heavier looking than the ones sold by the local jobber.

2000 km later all is well. Total cost: NZ$65 or about $35 US. Rebuilt axles
are hugely expensive in NZ. Bye the way, the torque on the nut is as
you say 140 -- 150ft-lbs. It may be a good idea to get it approximately right
as it could set sideload on the wheel bearing.

Have I unwittingly fallen into some kind of Subaru trap? Is the collective
wisdom that rebuilding the joints is not a worthwhile way to spend
a saturday morning??

One other thing. To get the axles out, I did something nobody has
mentioned yet. I just dropped the links off the stabalizer bar and pulled
out the front control arm bushing bolt. The whole control arm then
sort of flops around and give lots of clearance to get the axles out.
I didn't have a manual on this job. If its true that Haynes suggests to
take off the ball joint, then they've missed an easy trick. I believe
I saw thiis on the End of Wrench site when I was looking around
for torque specs and whatnot. Two easy bolts and you're in.
The ball joint looks like it could be a real pain--one could end up with
broken parts or a split boot before its out.

Chris

PS I had one other difficulty which I don't think anyone else should
have to worry about. I have no tools here while visiting NZ and I was
looking to do the job with only the toolkit from the car! It was
a challenge. Ok, to be fair, the house I rented has a decent garage
with, for some reason, a nice floor jack and a bench with a vice.
Also included was a carpenter's hammer, a few screwdrivers
and an adjustable wrench. That filled out my tool kit. I almost made it!

I had to purchase a used socket and breaker bar for the axle nut. That
was pretty obvious from the start. I broke off the end of one of
the screwdriviers trying to unstake the nuts -- ok, so I bought a punch
thin enough to do the roll pins at the same time.
The toolkit pliers and the broken screwdriver were essential for
setting the boot clamps. I torqued the axle nut by 'feel' with breaker bar.
Since then I've added a bit to my tool kit, inlcuding a $10 torque wrench so
I guess I should check the axle nuts at some point.

[nubs]

One other thing. To get the axles out, I did something nobody has
mentioned yet. I just dropped the links off the stabilizer bar and pulled
out the front control arm bushing bolt. The whole control arm then
sort of flops around and give lots of clearance to get the axles out.
I didn't have a manual on this job. If its true that Haynes suggests to
take off the ball joint, then they've missed an easy trick. Chris

I just changed my drivers side axle and used the ball joint method. I had a tough time getting it apart because of the rust.I did the passenger side a couple of months ago and it came right apart. I have another one to do on my other car,I will give your way a try.

One thing that I would like to suggest to anyone with a automatic,is to change the rear transmission cooler lines while the drivers side axle is out.
If you take out the windshield washer reservoir you can get to the top clamps and the bottom clamps are easy to get to from underneath with the axle out of the way.
You will need approximately 2 feet if hose and 4 new clamps.
If you have alot of miles on your car it would be wise to change them.

[Legacy777]

just to update.....I got out on the highway for a little bit this past weekend and the small vibration I used to get around 70-80 is gone. I had thought it was my tires out of balance.....It's very possible the driveshaft was out of whack.

Putting in my new tranny mount will be the last of the driveline stuff....so I shouldn't have any more issues. I'll be driving around some more next weekend and on the freeway to see if things continue to not produce any shaking.