Alrighty, so I had been getting the clunking noise around corners, so I checked out my CV boots. They were both ripped, and obviously had been for a while. I got the aftermarket replacement axles yesterday, and worked on it all this afternoon and evening. I got the old ones out, and the new ones in. The left side, however, is leaking transaxle fuild (I have a 97, manual tranny, no ABS, and as far as I know, no VLSD). I replaced the seal on the left side, the one that is leaking, but decided not to bother with the right side because it was so unaccessible, and looked like it was in good shape.

For one, I can't tell if the axle is inserted all the way (left side). I sure can't get it to go in anymore, (by pounding it in with its own shaft.....is this damaging to it?), and I never heard the clicking noise that the haynes manual describes from the little ring that clips into place. By LOOKING at it, it appears to be in as far as it is supposed to go.

Tomorrow, i'm going to go buy a smaller pry-bar that I can actually use to try to get the axle back out, because now it is stuck in the car. Hopefully I will see something obviously wrong with the seal when i get the axle back out (I hope I don't have to go buy another).


Does anyone have a similar experience they could share that might help me?

 

More than likely, if you can't pull out the axle easily, it is already in place just fine. There should be a nice sliver between the transmission and the axle end dust cap. The leaking may be do to the seal install or do you know if there was a leak there already? Probably hard to tell with all the axle grease. Not sure if you are aware of the huge problem with differential carrier bearings in our car failing but that is a huge source of driver's side axle oil leaking. One way to determine this is to check for free play of the axle end that goes into the transmission. There shouldn't be. In bad cases, when moving around the axle end, you can even see the oil seep past the axle seal. All manual trannies from 95-99 are affected.

 

In that case, its sounds like i've got it in all the way.

I'm not familiar with the differential carrier bearings problem. What sort of play am I looking for? Rotational, or up-down-sidways? As far as I know, it has not leaked before, which seems to indicate that I screwed up on installing the seal. At least I hope that is the case.

Thanks for the quick reply.