jim03

Hello all,i need to purchase a good manual for an 87 so that i can replace the drive axle assembly (torn boots,internal condition unknown)are there any special tools involved and could someone give me an idea how it is done? thanks much,jim mcguinness

Nismo87SE

Haynes repair manual or the nissan factory service manual will do just fine.

maximumride

If you want to purchase a manual for your 87 go to ebay. I was on last night saw at least 3 manuals for our vechicles for sale. They were priced pretty good. When you get to ebay type in Nissan Maxima and everything for maximas will pop just scroll down till you find the manuals.

MaxWgn

iTrader: (1)

I did both of mine about a year ago. Nismo is right, the Haynes is perfect for this step, as that's what I used. I got mine for about $11 at Autozone.

As far as an special tools, there's not really any. The closest thing is to make sure you have a socket big enough to fit the spindle nut.

The procedure goes something like thsi (going from memory, so this is not a great reference...):

Jack up the side of the car, and place on jack stands.

Pull the wheel, and caliper.

Here's a grey area - either the rotor will slide off at this point, allowing access to the hub, or the rotor and hub are integrated (I can't remember which.)

Remove the three nuts holding the lower ball-joint to the control arm, and move the spindle assembly out of the way (or just pull the strut)

Now, there is a carrier bearing about half-way down the length of the shaft. The shaft is attached to this bearing using 3 bolts. Pull these bolts out.

Now for the fun part - yanking out the old shaft & sliding in the new...
It takes quite a bit of force to pull the shaft out, and even more to insert it. I needed to use a wooden block to protect the shaft end, and a large mallet to drive the shaft back into the tranny. To do this, though, make sure you have the tranny end lined up properly. This still did not fully seat the carrier bearing - i used the three bolts and slowly tightened them to pull the bearing / shaft together...

Then, just a matter of getting everything back togther...

Mind you, I went further with the tear down, since I was replacing my struts, and outer tie-rod ends at the same time. It's not difficult, however. That was my first attempt at r/r FWD half-shafts, and with a buddy to help when I needed that third hand, we actually got both shafts replaced, as well as the tie-rod ends (struts got put off for the next day) in about 7 hours - this was also a cold day, and we were not working very fast.

Hope this helps...