Left CV shaft won't come out!

[Mpowered1]

What is the trick to getting this out. The right side came out easy enough. The left is getting caught between the differential flange and the rear A arm mounting bolt. The shaft won't drop down any further because it also hits the A arm. I've tried jacking the bottom A arm up to get a better angle, moving the wheel left and right but it doesn't want to come out. Anyone else have this problem. What am I doing wrong. I have hundreds of dollars in parts waiting to go back on but this F#@$**@ shaft wont come out! Please help!

Gary

 

[H8PVMNT]

Yes indeed... I always had to either unload the torsion bar and detach the lower ball joint to get it far enough away or drop out the diff housing completely to get enough room.

 

["N8"]

you can get it outa there without removing ball joints, but it is a pita. You gotta jack up the truck and let the suspension go to full droop and rotate it till one of the u shaped cuts in the axle flange are in the right position to clear the studs. then its wrestle and moan till it pops out. The other easy way to get some clearance is to remove the upper a arm ball joint and stick a toyota jack in between the a arms and separate them (careful if you do this you will load up the spring and if the jack pops out you got a lot of power behind that a arm comin down on your hands.) I would wrestle with it quite a bit before i stuck that jack in there.

 

[RobG]

Did you remove any of the studs?

There are a lot of write ups about converting the studs to bolts for a faster trail swap.

 

[Foreigner]

When I did mine six months ago, I had to bang out a stud on the right side. As I recall, it was just one and then I could move the arm enough to drop it down. I just monkeyed with it enough to slip it by.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Take all the tension off of your Torsion Bar on that side.

I screwed with one for ages until I realized that the T-bars were cranked all the way tight. They came out so easy with the suspension "loose."

I'd certainly give it a shot.

Dan

 

[Mpowered1]

Thanks for all the info. I ended up dropping the lower ball joint. Came off pretty easy, and the shaft came right out. Getting it back in was just as difficult, trying to pry the lower arm down while sliding the shaft in. I'm sure all the neighborhood kids learned some knew words this weekend. I haven't got the ball joint tightened up yet as I wrecked the nut taking it off, wish me luck trying to find a nut for that. I think its an M15 or M16. Again, thanks for all the help.

Gary