Well, as many of you may know I was mislead into buying a POS kit car donor with a fecucked rear left axel. So I got these instructions from Ogre on fiero.nl and rented a 30mm socket and breaker bar from Crappy Tire...
Ogre's method..... (Some of this is already covered. This is how I do it step by step.)
I use this method for both my car and my dodge caravan. (And yes,,, that axle nut should be replaced.)
With a wheel on the car, remove the nut from the shaft. The socket will fit thru the stock 14" wheel center hole. I'm not sure about other alloy wheels. If it won't fit yours then mount the spare tire.
I just carefully pry out the center cap from the wheel before I take the wheel off. If that is a pain, and it can be, then take the wheel off, take out the cap and put it back on.
After the nut and wheel are off...
1. remove caliper from mounting bracket. hang it up with a piece of wire.
2. disconnect brake line from strut.
3. remove pinch bolt and disconnect ball joint.
That will let you swing out the hub without causing you to need an alignment. Also avoids issues with separating the tie rod.
Push the axle in toward the tranny as you work it out of the hub. (This compresses the spring in the inner CV. Effectivly shortening the axle.)
Once the outer end is free CAREFULLY pry the axle out of the tranny. The trick here is getting the pry bar to push the axle straight out. Make sure you don't wreck the tranny case.
If the axle is a real turd, and some are, there is an attachment for large slide hammers that will get it.
ALWAYS replace the transmission seal when replacing the axle! Even if you are reusing the same axle, it's cheap insurance against a leak. Make sure you don't score the tranny hole prying out the seal.
If you do score the tranny's seal mounting hole... Clean it with brake parts cleaner and put a small amount of RTV Si sealer on the walls of the hole. I prefer paint on sealer like Permatex Super 300 or Balkamp Aviation sealer over RTV for this. If you don't put any sealer in the scoring then the seal will leak.
Check for the seal guard on the outer CV. New/rebuilt axles often are missing it. It needs to be moved from the old axle to the new one or the hub seal won't seal right or last long. This is a metal ring the press fits onto the outter CV.
put the new axle in and reassemble everything but only start the axle nut.
put the wheel on (leave the center cap out for now) and then tighten the axle nut. (Torque spec in my cave.)
IMPORTANT!!! Compare the new axle to the old one carefully BEFORE you install it! The one time I forgot to do that I found out half way thru that the new one was an inch shorter...
Ogre's method..... (Some of this is already covered. This is how I do it step by step.)
I use this method for both my car and my dodge caravan. (And yes,,, that axle nut should be replaced.)
With a wheel on the car, remove the nut from the shaft. The socket will fit thru the stock 14" wheel center hole. I'm not sure about other alloy wheels. If it won't fit yours then mount the spare tire.
I just carefully pry out the center cap from the wheel before I take the wheel off. If that is a pain, and it can be, then take the wheel off, take out the cap and put it back on.
After the nut and wheel are off...
1. remove caliper from mounting bracket. hang it up with a piece of wire.
2. disconnect brake line from strut.
3. remove pinch bolt and disconnect ball joint.
That will let you swing out the hub without causing you to need an alignment. Also avoids issues with separating the tie rod.
Push the axle in toward the tranny as you work it out of the hub. (This compresses the spring in the inner CV. Effectivly shortening the axle.)
Once the outer end is free CAREFULLY pry the axle out of the tranny. The trick here is getting the pry bar to push the axle straight out. Make sure you don't wreck the tranny case.
If the axle is a real turd, and some are, there is an attachment for large slide hammers that will get it.
ALWAYS replace the transmission seal when replacing the axle! Even if you are reusing the same axle, it's cheap insurance against a leak. Make sure you don't score the tranny hole prying out the seal.
If you do score the tranny's seal mounting hole... Clean it with brake parts cleaner and put a small amount of RTV Si sealer on the walls of the hole. I prefer paint on sealer like Permatex Super 300 or Balkamp Aviation sealer over RTV for this. If you don't put any sealer in the scoring then the seal will leak.
Check for the seal guard on the outer CV. New/rebuilt axles often are missing it. It needs to be moved from the old axle to the new one or the hub seal won't seal right or last long. This is a metal ring the press fits onto the outter CV.
put the new axle in and reassemble everything but only start the axle nut.
put the wheel on (leave the center cap out for now) and then tighten the axle nut. (Torque spec in my cave.)
IMPORTANT!!! Compare the new axle to the old one carefully BEFORE you install it! The one time I forgot to do that I found out half way thru that the new one was an inch shorter...
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