Driver's side half-shaft stuck in transaxle

[rfisherman]

I have an '89 MTX that needs the left half-shaft replaced due to vibration. It will not come out of the transaxle. I have tried prying and I have tried the loaner cv puller tool and slide hammer from Autozone. It will not budge. Does anyone have ideas or experience with this problem?

 

[Ishodu]

A pry par always has got them out for me. But the key is not to actaully pry or pull on them it requires a quick snap to pop them out. There is a little C clip on the end that needs to compress for it to come out only the quick snap will compress it and let it pop out.

 

[itwonder]

The only thing holding it is the little clip inside that needs to be compressed, but they can be a royal pita. I've had luck just putting gloves on, grabbing it, bracing my feet, and then pull-shake-yank until it gives....which can take more than a few tries. It takes a good sharp yank straight out, as said in the previous post. Pry bars and the like sometimes put side load on it which binds it from coming out.

 

[redwraith94]

Back when I had a tempo, I cut the boot around the shaft, and used a three jaw puller against my craftsman breaker bar, the bar flexed a surprising few inches, and almost got bent getting it out. The breaker bar has a groove in it, and it will need to be nearly perpendicular to not slide. I had tried every other method, including using a brass punch on the opposite side, and a mini sledge.

I don't have the sho in front of me, but you may be able to put the breaker bar across the trans case, and the subframe. I can't remember how square that arrangement would be at the moment.

 

[rfisherman]

:thankyou: Thanks to all for your suggestions. Still no success. I hate to admit that I have given up for now but I have. Brother is going to come over tonight to take a look at it. He's a farmer and deals with this type of stuff all the time with trucks, tractors, etc. If we are successful I'll post back with what worked.

 

[92ShoOff]

I had the same trouble last year trying to get that CV axle out. I ended up separating the axle components by giving up on prying at the transaxle and yanking on the other end of the shaft rather. Haha. I knew that was destined to happen, but I was so frustrated that I just didn't care.

Yesterday I popped mine out without almost any effort. I had a tie-rod separator that I was renting from AutoZone. After using it to separate the tie-rods I remembered how much of a pain it was removing the driver's side axle last time. By the way, last time I tried big long screw drivers, a drift tool, and I forget what else. This time I looked over at the tie-rod separator, fit it right between the transaxle and the housing for the tri-lobial piece and gave it a quick, tough tug and it popped right off on the first try.

I think why this tool worked so well was because of how thick and sturdy it was. The big screwdrivers and drift that I was trying last time were too flexible and the tools where taking the shock of the prying, not the axle. Run over to your local AutoZone and ask to borrow one of these:

http://www.autozone.com/selectedZip,20653/initialAction,accessoryProductDetail/initialR,1689402/shopping/selectZip.htm

Hope that helps!

 

[zak]

Assuming you will replace the CV joint, just use is as a slide hammer. Push the disc brake rotor as far inboard as the CV joint will allow, then pull it out toward you (it is pivoting on the strut top - this assumes you have not removed the strut and spindle) as hard as you can. It will pop out . . .BTDT - Matt Hepner, a former SHOtimer and Ford mechanic, taught me this one.

zak

 

[rfisherman]

:woo-hoo: I got her to pop. It took another 15 minutes or so with the CV puller slide hammer tool banging away and it finally just popped right out. If anybody reads this thread in the future with the same problem I can only encourage them to persevere. It will come out if you don't give up! Thanks again to all!