Aspire CV axle removal

[TominMO]

No progress on the axle removal?

See post #25 above. Gonna get to it this morning.

[TominMO]

OK, update time. Wait, gotta feed cat.

Ok, I'm back. Went out, detached axle from knuckle, and pulled on the axle shaft with my hands. The inner CV boot immediately stretched, and I could tell the bearings in there were now out of the cup. Pushed it back in, then undid the clip on the large end of the boot. Pulled boot off, cleaned old grease out of the cup and off the bearings. Turns out there is no circlip holding the bearings in the cup!

I then tried removing the old cup as before--prybar, BFH, etc. Nothing doing. Interestingly, the grease in the outer boot was black and thick, like grease oughta be; the grease in the inner boot was runny and milk-chocolaty in color. And the inner boot was still intact, while the outer one is torn.

Plan C: hope I didn't FUBAR* the tranny seal; take the old boot and bearings from the new CV axle's cup and install the new axle onto the old cup; reassemble.

Plan D: get a slide hammer and go for it. This will involve drilling two holes in the old cup to attach something that I can attach the slide hammer to. Much more work.

God's smitin' me good on this one.....


* F***** Up Beyond All Repair

[zoom zoom]

the circlip thing your referring to is actually inside the transmission on the end of the axel, it keeps the axel from popping out of the transmission.. the only thing holding the cv's together is gravity and the lca pinning the steering knuckle back against the frame/car.. i'll try to notepad draw you a picture lol..

it's a really really rough sketch, but it's my understanding of the driveaxel..

[TominMO]

the circlip thing your referring to is actually inside the transmission on the end of the axel, it keeps the axel from popping out of the transmission.. the only thing holding the cv's together is gravity and the lca pinning the steering knuckle back against the frame/car.. i'll try to notepad draw you a picture lol..

Yeah, I know about the one inside the transmission. I am referring to the much larger one that should be inside the cup on the inner CV joint. There is a groove there for one, but no clip. But frankly i must admit that I am not sure why there needs to be one, since the axle can only travel so far when it is attached to the tranny and the knuckle. I have seen them inside the axles on other cars tho, like my old Subaru.

[zoom zoom]

^.^ if there is supposed to be one on the cv joints i didn't have it when i yanked my axels out of the cups either!

azone has a nice core charge for the old cvs/axel, no matter what shape they're in! just go rent a pull hammer and drill a hole in the inner cup after you clean the grease out.. yank that little bstrd out! takes a ton of elbow grease tho, if you know any teenage boys, now would be the time to put em to work!

[georgeb]

There's supposed to be a thin wire circlip holding the inner joint together if you have the 6 ball type. But it wouldn't take much force to pop it out of it's groove. My bare cups are still in my trans and I can't get them out. I'll be reassembling them where they sit. Hope that the seals weren't ruined.

[TominMO]

There's supposed to be a thin wire circlip holding the inner joint together if you have the 6 ball type. But it wouldn't take much force to pop it out of it's groove. My bare cups are still in my trans and I can't get them out. I'll be reassembling them where they sit. Hope that the seals weren't ruined.

Right, the thin wire circlip is what I had expected to see in there. Looks like we're in the same boat.

[FestYboy]

Tom, update on the protege in our shop: burned (blue wrench drill) a hole and attached slide hammer to inner cup and went to town... it came out eventualy but put up a good fight till it just gave up and almose fell out. turns out that the circlip was stretched and was hanging up on the splines of the spider gear.

i vote for not beating around the bush and get at it with heavy equiptment.

[TominMO]

Tom, update on the protege in our shop: burned (blue wrench drill) a hole and attached slide hammer to inner cup and went to town... it came out eventualy but put up a good fight till it just gave up and almose fell out. turns out that the circlip was stretched and was hanging up on the splines of the spider gear.

i vote for not beating around the bush and get at it with heavy equiptment.

Good feedback, thanks. That will be my backup plan. Hoping that the seal is still intact, I will stick the new inner CV bearings into the old cup. If it turns out that the seal is leaking significantly, I will go the route you did. I don't relish drilling into that thick steel cup; plus, going that route is irreversible, once I drill into the cup. And as long as I can't get the cup out, it's a nonfunctional vehicle; besides, there might possibly be more risk in damaging the tranny if I go the slide hammer route.

My plans for this car are just to get it to pass safety inspection next month, which obviously I need to get this job done just to drive it to the inspection place. I will drive it for 1 - 2 years, then probably part it out or sell it cheap to a forum member. This is the almost-pristine white Aspire SE I bought two years ago, then some seriously old guy* ran into me within two months. Damaged the rad support, etc. on the left front. I'm planning on keeping the Festy and getting a 1995 - 96 Suby Impreza Outback Sport for my "real" car.

* I am only semi-seriously old.

[zoom zoom]

Aw man u gotta SE? With the blue gauges and rpm tach and all?

DIBS! On the cluster! LMK when your rdy to sell

[TominMO]

Aw man u gotta SE? With the blue gauges and rpm tach and all?

DIBS! On the cluster! LMK when your rdy to sell

Yep, blue gauges, tach, nicer interior. No dibs given at this time, sorry. (I knew someone would ask! )

I will possibly offer it to certain friends, either whole or parts. Might keep some parts. Might even buy another straight 2-door Aspire and transfer the cool parts to it.

[Nerd Racing]

I've always had to take a large cold chisel and drive it between the bearing cup and the transmission case and it pops them right out. I've done it on 5 aspires.

If you sell the car I want it! sight unseen!

[TominMO]

I've always had to take a large cold chisel and drive it between the bearing cup and the transmission case and it pops them right out. I've done it on 5 aspires.

If you sell the car I want it! sight unseen!

Didn't get to it today, so tmw I will try this method as a last-ditch effort instead of sticking the new guts in the old cup.

No dibs on car, as stated. Besides, you are a nerd, as am I, and for once I would like the car to have an owner who is not a nerd. (The PO, who bought it new, was a nerd too.)

[TominMO]

Update: cold chisel didn't work. Just wasted another four hours trying that and some other stuff.

Disassembled inside CV on new axle. Tried to use old cup and new tripot bearings. That didn't work because the old cup is too small--new bearings and cup are slightly larger.

Going to Advance Auto to buy two new outer CV boots (pass. side needs it too). Gonna just pack the old axle w/grease and hope the clicking stops or at least lessens.

Maybe someday I'll try the slide-hammer approach, but for now I'm tired of f***ing with this stupid axle. Terrible design.

[ericsmith32]

A little late in the discussion but I had a similar experience with a Festiva. What it took was taking turns prying and pushing the axle in while turning it a 90 or so degrees and smacking the axle with a big damn hammer so the clip would fall.. took about 30 minutes but finally it popped out. Way to easy actually. I know you said you tried something similar but took a little more effort than just turning it and hitting a few times.