REALLY stuck inner CV joint.

finally getting the wife's Rio together. Got the new LCA, got another new axle (new old one ripped the boot and is a little sloppy). Cannot get the inner joint out. Tried slide hammer, pry bars etc and nothing. At one point I had a 3' crow bar on this thing and got nothin.

Ideas? The way the transaxle is made you cannot get anything between the joint and the trans as it sits in a recessed hole. Am I going to have to try and pull the passenger side to pop it out that way? There has got to be an easier way!

I'm assuming that it's not like a transverse Saab where the inner actually BOLTS to the differential...

This reminds me of every Maxima axle I've ever had to do. For some reason Nissan got the circlip bevel in the differential all wrong.

One person hitting on a prybar (used like a punch) underneath with another person stabilizing the inner with another prybar from above so it gets hit out straight and not cockeyed. Even then it can take forever.

Removing the passenger side axle will probably be the easiest way.

Any chance its already an aftermarket axle in there? I remember that the clips used to be larger than OEM on many Mazda CV's. You had to really jam it in, and the only way to get it out was from the other side.

By the way Snap-on makes a tool for this, or you can make something like it with pipe and a grinder.

Saw this once on a Sephia (wow, that's been a long time ago). The snap ring had lifted out of the groove and gotten stuck between the CV axle spline and the spider gear. To remove it, the tech had to pull the axle o the other side then use a long straight punch that would fit between the spider gear pin and drive it out from the opposite side. When it finally came out, he discovered that the snap ring had been cut in half at the male/female spline interface.

Turn the axle 180 degrees. Sometimes the clip hangs up in one spot, then not so much in another.

I also like using two prybars straight across from each other so it pulls straighter instead of cocking to one side, but that doesn't sound like an option here.

had this problem on a friend's '01 Bonneville a few months ago.. i was unable to drive it out from the passenger side because there was something in the way in the differential- which wasn't there in my '01 Grand Prix with the same trans- so i wound up taking out what i could of the axle and clamping a Vise Grip on the inner hub then pulling it out with a few good tugs with a slide hammer screwed in place of the adjusting bolt.. this was after fighting with it using pry bars from various angles coupled with every swear word i knew for several hours..

Did the slide hammers. Nada.

gearheadmb wrote: Turn the axle 180 degrees. Sometimes the clip hangs up in one spot, then not so much in another.

Done. Multiple times. same results. God I hate this car. Or do I hate working on stuff thats not race car related?

You said the axle's being replaced because it's a little sloppy. Where's the slop originating? If it's not due to the inboard housing, leave it in-place in the transaxle. Remove the metal "ziptie" from the CV boot, and pull the rest of the axle assembly out of it. Disassemble the new axle the same way, and plug it into the old inner unit. Replace the metal retainer strap on the CV boot. You can guess how I figured this out...

That'll be $100.

Had one stuck on a Mazda 626. Had to weld a handle and a home made slide hammer onto the thing because the cv disintegrated. Used a 25 pound weight as the slide hammer.

I just pulled the engine and trans from the tercel ice racer.....drivers side stuck.I gave up and just pulled everything out with it in the trans.

Same side gave me grief last yr when I pulled just the trans to weld the diff,I did get it out finally but not this time.

I don't think I'll waste anymore energy on it so its going back in the way it came out.

In reply to kb58:

That would be great if that was still an option. It's not. I cut slots in the thing to let the slide hammer get a grip. Obviously didn't work and now I am in a pickle. Neighbor told the wife yesterday that he might have something... but I didn't get home until late.

My son had one stick in his Escort. He ended up disassembling the joint, drilling a hole in the cup and bolting a chain to it. He hooked the chain to a come-a-long, chained the other side of the car to the opposite wall of the shop, tightened everything up...and jumped on the chain. It's a wonder the world didn't stop when that contraption cut loose. He said the cup almost killed him when it came out from under the car at mach 10.

I wish I had been there, with a video camera.

Volvo has a good tool to remove axles with. I imagine it could be fabricated fairly easily. Possibly even using a pickle fork in the same way. Assuming you can get in there with the recess.

I find that stuck ones need a sharp blow. Slide hammers just don't give enough of a hit when these ate really stuck.

Pickle fork between the trans and the CV joint cup hit with a 3lb sledge pritty hard usually works well if you can get one in there.

In reply to The Hoff:

That won't work because this is still recessed about 3/4" and there's physically no way to get in between the axle and the trans.

Once in the past I had a similar issue. I used two ratchet straps made two hoops around the inner CV and transmission and then tightened them down to my truck that was next to it and hit the CV with dead blow hammer and it popped out.

an alternative to a slide hammer that may have a little more tug is a chain/cable and a sledge hammer. get the chain/cable around the CV axle and wrap the other end of the cable/chain around the head of the sledge hammer. Then swing the hammer away from the CV causing the chain/cable to tug on the CV.

It requires a little bit more space so you can get a good swing with the hammer but I have found it to be a pretty good technique

Well apparently Korean engineers are smarter than I thought. There's a ring around the axle held on by 5 bolts with 2 threaded holes on opposite sides. Take out the 5 12mm bolts, thread in 2 long ones and press off. This in turn pulls the axle out of the diff. GENIUS! Except that housing is ALSO the side cover for the diff and exposes the entire bearing. Good news is the diff bearings are in great shape!

I also tried sledgehammer o a chain.... 3" ratchet tied to the other car, tightened then jumped on it.... it literally slid the two cars closer together. Also took out the passenger axle only to reveal the diff pins are HUGE and you can't even SEE the other axle.

But back to the story..... Got it out. The thing holding it in (snap ring) is now gone. Crap. Also notice that it took one little tooth of the end of hte axle coming off. So I grabbed a magnet and fished around in there (carefully) and found no pieces. Well.... its back together with 3 qts of fresh fluid and runs fine. We'll see.

Oh... and the entire reason I was doing this (odd squeaking/moving noise at take off and coming to a stop) is still there. Granted, the compliance bushing FELL out of the old control arm, but that wasn't the source of the noise.