Yesterday I replaced my driver's side axle and after many attempts at slamming it in, I got it to go in further than my previous attempts. Keep in mind, I forgot to feel around before I took the existing axle off to judge how much room is at the end.

So when I punched the new axle in, I felt around at the end and it felt like there was a lip or something preventing it from going in any further, was probably about .75cm out.

I then looked at the old axle and noticed some rust on this "lip" portion, so I concluded the rust is from that lip being exposed and not completely in. At this point I felt semi-safe about how much I punched the new axle in.

Took it out for a drive, no noticable noises, a tiny tiny tiny bit of vibration in the steering wheel.

Did I do this right?

Side note - Could not get the passenger axle out, the bracket where the 3 12mm bolts are located are pretty much rusted together and had no luck breaking it free.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=484830

look at the first picture, that bronze colored housing should go all the way into the seal so very little of it is visable. If not make sure you got the proper axle, ive run into that problem many times.

 

you don't unknowingly have an LSD tranny do you? lol
(or visa versa) Could be like me trying to figure out why my old axle wouldn't go in to my new tranny. lol

 

If the bracket on the passenger side with the three bolts is really stuck, bang it off with a hammer. There are two parts, the bracket that bolts to the engine, and the ring on the axle. The ring can spin freely when its unbolted. Take a hammer and smack it a few times to turn it a bit, then hit it from the other side to pound the axle out.

 

Mine *feels* like its probly a mm or 2 deeper in than your pics.
I also noticed that you have a VLSD..I don't believe I have that, so is it normal for me?

 

well it turned out to be one hell of a problem for me, my passengerside axle was the wrong one it was too long and prevented my driver side axle from going in all the way. i didnt realize that till after i bought another tranny, good thing i got a cash refund though. one thing to make sure is when you buy an axle measure them up to make sure your old one and the one you buy is IDENTICAL. and yeah im in canada so i have VLSD.