replacing front axles

[turbowop]

I am replacing both front axles do to torn cv boots. They have been this way for about 6 months, but not with many miles. I went to Les Schwab to order them. The guy there didn't know which ones to order because he never heard of an awd galant. Not wanting to get into a big discussion on the drivetrain of my car I suggested looking up the axles for a 1g eclipse gsx. He found these much easier so I said to order them. So, are these the same axles as our vr4's. I just want to make sure before I start tearing into my car next weekend. And is there anything I should look out for when replacing the axles. Thanks,Mark
1051P.S. I paid $99 a piece for the axles. About average I thought.

 

[ken inn]

i think i paid like 70 for the right side from pep boys, and 60 for the left side from carquest. the left side one has to be removed from the car with the intermediate shaft. you remove the wheels, then the cotter key, and the castle nut that holds the outer joint. the intermediate shaft is held on with 2 i think 12mm wrench bolts to the block. take those 2 bolts off, separate the outer joint from the lower knuckle, and pull the whole mess off the car. if you have bigger than stock sway bars, you may have to separate the lower part of the shock from the knuckle. i had to, and i just removed the whole strut assembly. put a drain pan under the trans, or just drain it. the new shaft will not come with the intermediate shaft. you have to separate the old one from the intermediate shaft. all you do is hold the shaft with one hand, so that the outer joint is pointing down at the ground, and tap at the inner joint, right were it goes into the intermediate shaft with a hammer. a couple of good whacks and it should fall to the ground. watch out for toes. to install, i just put a bit of grease on the splines, turned it upside down, and dropped it intermediate shaft first on our wood deck, a couple of times, and it clicked into place. after that, i got lazy, and paid howard to put it back. you may want to make sure you can loosed the castle nut on the knuckle before you get started. when we were taking parts off of a car in richardson, ed had a breaker bar, and a cheater bar, and was yanking on it so hard, the front end was bouncing off the ground. cracked me up.

 

Darn it...my CV boots are out too, found that out when I replaced my front rotors. How difficult is it to replace the front axles??? Sounds complicated.

 

[BluFalcon]

Ken,
Glad I could be so entertaining.....

I have since refined my technique for getting the axle nut off. Take a big ol' screwdriver, place it in the brake rotor cooling slot and let it butt up against the brake caliper in the direction of rotation for the nut. Take the 36 MM axle nut, a large breaker bar and a cheater bar, place it on the nut and proceed to try and lift the car off the ground. I haven't lifted a car off the ground since I started doing it this way. Sometimes a shot of Kroil or WD40 on the nut helps beforehand. Seems to work everytime..especially if the cheater bar is nice and long.

 

what in the .....I though the axle/spindle nut was a 32mm !I followed teh VFAQ for getting them out worked perfectly.To get the axle nuts off I removed the wheel, got the cotter pin out, put the wheel back on put the car on the ground. Used a 32mm 1/2" + 18" breaker bar + 5' iron pipe.

 

[teet]

I just put the standard breaker bar on...and then put my jack under the end of the handle and jack

course occasionally it lifts the car too before the nut busts loose...but then you just have someone stand on the brakes

john

 

www.raxles.com Don't buy cv joints (or complete axles that only contain rebuild cv joints) from Pep Boys.

 

Does any one know who might have rear CV Shafts. I called Raxles, but he only makes the front CV Shafts for our cars. I have a 1gen GSX parts car, to shave money for the meantime would the rear passanger side shaft off that car work on GVR4. If not does anyone have any other sources for rear CV Shafts? Kris

 

[iceman69510]

Gee, all I did was use my impact...:^)

 

[BluFalcon]

Doh!! You were right BossGVR4, it is a 32 mm nut and not a 36. It was late when I made the post and I was tired..heh.Impact Wrench?!! Real men don't use power tools..they use cheater bars, BFH's and whatever other dirty trick in the book that works to get the job done. Guys like Howard use power tools

Joking...I usually get so caught up in what I'm doing, I usually forget that I do have power tools. Every axle nut I've tried to get off for the first time has required the use of a breaker bar, a screwdriver in the cooling slot on the rotor and a healthy dose of "chimp rage". Impacts usually won't budge the nuts.[This message has been edited by BluFalcon (edited 05-21-2002).]

 

[beavis]

i was lazy and didn't read all of the other posts, so i'm not sure if anybody else said this. it is recommended to replace the old axle nuts with new ones when you put in the new axles. any part house will have them in stock. also don't go ape sh*t tightnening the axle nuts. use the factory torque rating, because if you go to tight, it puts a lot of stress on the hub. have fun getting the intermediate shaft away from the axle. that for me was the most difficult part. its also a could time to change all your fluids.

 

quote:Originally posted by HKS VR-4:
Darn it...my CV boots are out too, found that out when I replaced my front rotors. How difficult is it to replace the front axles??? Sounds complicated.You can just put new CV boots on if the CV joints haven't been trashed.

 

quote: also don't go ape sh*t tightnening the axle nuts. use the factory torque rating, because if you go to tight, it puts a lot of stress on the hub.You should always torque axle nuts to the factory setting so as not to overtighten and F-up your wheel bearings. edited for spelling
[This message has been edited by smokindav (edited 05-24-2002).]