I am not bragging here. Went to pull my transmission today and had a problem removing the left hand axle shaft. It just did not want to come out, tried pulling, prying, turning while doing the two, nothing. I've probably pulled 10 maxima transmissions so its not like I'm new to it. I decided to give it one more try, and I ended up yanking the retaining ring out of the CV bearing, on the stub shaft going into the transmission. Here is the aftermath...





Stub shaft is still stuck in the tranny, whoohoo. Along with rebuilding the tranny it looks like I now need a new axle shaft...

 

i did that on a older corolla a while back at the shop.....thing didnt wanna come out...but eventually i got it out. same **** happened though. youll get it out...maybe not easy, but youll get it out...

 

Meh, the bearings are toast, so I am rebuilding it anyway, and throwing a quaife for good measure. Once I get it on the workbench, that SOB is coming out!

 

quaife huh? didnt think there was many options for us for an lsd...ive just been scouting for a i30 vlsd tranny...i should look into aftermarket lsds for our cars....

im about to just rock a phantom grip . hehe j/k. im not that gangsta.

good luck on the rebuild...post up some pics...what gearset you using? all stock?

 

Yeah, I'm sticking with the stock gearset for now. I'll post up some picks once everything is done. I got the second to last quaife that Cattman was selling, I think he might have 1 left. After that, you will have to get one used, as they do not import them anymore.

 

I had always heard not to pull on the end of the drive shaft, instead to grab behind the CV because if you pull to hard you could pull the joint apart. I guess it was true

I know what you mean about that driver side axle being hard to get out though.

 

I recently replaced my passenger-side axle and noticed that my Haynes' manual said that if you have difficulty removing the driver-side axle, then remove the passenger-side axle and then you can drive the driver-side out with the appropriate tool.
I had the same thing happen on my former Mazda 626 and ended up drilling and tapping a couple of holes in the bottom of the cup of the inner joint and just jacking it out. The Haynes' manual for that car didn't mention the same trick as above, it's possible you couldn't do the same trick I suppose.

 

Hmm, not sure how that would work. The open differential has a metal bar that runs through the axle inputs, blocking anything from going all the way through. Not saying it can't be done, just having a hard time picturing it.

 

i've pulled it out of socket but never torn apart like that leaving one side in the tranny. i got it back together (talk about a ****ing mess) and for some reason couldnt seal the boot good enough to keep it from leaking that grease but the axle still worked for a short while before I got new ones.

 

haha dude thats tight

 

You can slide a large flathead screwdriver in past the diff spider axle to tap on the opposite side.

I did the same thing once to one of my CVs. It is no fun.

Dave

 

I'm not even going to mess with it anymore at this point. I called it quits last night after that little incident, I'm just going to pull the tranny today with the stub shaft still in it, I'll get it out once the tranny is on my workbench.

 

I had somewhat of a similar issue recently on my wife's 3rd gen. I replaced her axle boots and went to reinstall the axle into the CV joint, it would not go in all the way which prevented the hub from bolting back at the ball joint. Replaced the lock ring with two different new ones, still would not go into the joint all the way. I ended up leaving it out. Everything went back togeter fine. I think it would be tougher to try and pull one out than to put it back together. What causes these rings to lock up so tight? Get too hot and expand, preventing them from calapsing properly so that the ring passes through the threads?

 

Wow Strong Arms....

 

Apparently the trick of driving out the left axle from the right side of the tranny is only available for those of us with auto's. (Perhaps something I shouldn't be admitting to here). Sorry for the hasty reply just trying to participate a bit.

 

I got it out today. Had to use a long flathead and hammer it out, it was really in there. The flathead JUST slipped past the cross shaft that runs through the middle of the diff. There was no way that thing was coming out otherwise. The C-clip popped way out afterwards, so it must have really been holding. Even after it started coming out, I had to hammer on it all the way out. Oh well.

 

^Sounds like loads of fun Matt. Those pics in the first post is gnarly!

 

Best description of a Phantom Grip ever.

 

Same here.

mtrai760's boot was probably really old.