HELP! Disaster of a day trying to r/r left front CV shaft.

[Herbie]

I'd done all the reading, thought I knew where the pitfalls were, but man, have I had a crappy day trying to do front-end work on my van.

Had a boat-load of trouble getting enough clearance to pull the driver's side shaft. Since I was doing ball joint relocation and a few other things anyway, eventually pulled the upper arm entirely and after several hours, got the shaft out. Comparing it to the reman'd shaft, I saw why I had so much trouble - the stubby spline'd piece that mates the shaft to the front diff had stayed with the shaft - making everything a couple of inches longer than if it'd stayed in the diff.

Had to open up the OEM shaft to knock the spline out. :(

Bigger problem though is now I can't get the new reman'd shaft all the way in. I tried it first with putting the splined stub into the diff first, then adding the shaft, but had a lot of trouble inserting it fully. After another hour, I still had about 3/4" of the shaft to go and it wasn't budging. Figured I'd done something wrong, pulled the whole thing back out. Used the housing from the original shaft to pull the splined stub back out, re-checked everything for mushed splines, etc. and it all looked fine. Inserted the stub into the shaft this time, and tried again. Now I'm left with at least 1" of the shaft not seated correctly. I can tell I'm engaging the splines 'cause I can spin the diff, but it's possible I'm only grabbing the tip and not even compressing the ring/spring thing.

I've tried using a jack and ratchet straps to raise the lower arm and twist the hub into various positions, thinking the angle on the shaft might be causing binding, but doesn't seem to be the issue. I've got enough play that I can rock the partially engaged housing, but after hours of rocking, twisting, and pushing, I can't get that farking thing to seat!

So there it sits, up on stands, with the CV half-inserted and not going anywhere. Any ideas?

I've got other issues too, but I'll put them in the suspension forum, where they belong.

Thanks all.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

They can definitely be a bugger! I don't know if it will work, but try keeping the hub end out and keep the whole CV shaft as straight as possible to engage the splines then put the axle nut end into the hub. If that doesn't work then do it the way you are and use a second jack under the lower ball joint to raise the knuckle and try to press the shaft in by pushing on the knuckle.

[Herbie]

They can definitely be a bugger! I don't know if it will work, but try keeping the hub end out and keep the whole CV shaft as straight as possible to engage the splines then put the axle nut end into the hub. If that doesn't work then do it the way you are and use a second jack under the lower ball joint to raise the knuckle and try to press the shaft in by pushing on the knuckle.

I'll give those a go. Wasn't sure if it was "safe" to try to bottom out the sliding portion and use that in a thrusting capacity, was worried about buggering my brand-new shaft! ;-)

[LiftedAWDAstro]

That is how I have done many of mine with no ill effect on the shafts.

Did you get the t-case installed yet?

[Herbie]

That is how I have done many of mine with no ill effect on the shafts.

Did you get the t-case installed yet?

Ok, I'll give that a go next. (Wedding yesterday and other family stuff today, so Monday is my next day to work on it.)

Not yet on the t-case, wanted to make sure I sorted out the clicking issues first, get everything driving normally again before swapping that out. After how this has gone, I may puss-out and pay to have that done, since that should be more bolt-in.

[Herbie]

Argh, sooooo close! I'm within like 1/8" of getting it fully seated. I've taken 8 full turns out of the torsion arm preload so I can get the suspension pushed up to "almost straight" and I've pushed on it every way I can think of. I'd probably leave it as-is, except the chevy instructions specifically say you shouldn't be able to push it back out by the tripot housing, which I can - so I know it's not locked in.

Soo frustrating. Now that I have the upper arm rivets punched out, I'm seriously considering bolting it back together with the old tripot housing (disassembled from the old shaft) inserted, driving it to my nearest shop and handing them the keys, the shaft, and my credit card. My DIY ego is taking a serious bruising on this project.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Sooo close yet so far away!

Have you tried to install the stub shaft into the CV shaft and then into the diff? At least make sure it will go in and there isn't something binding in the new CV shaft. Lightly oil the splines which I am sure you did. Another thing you may be able to do is using a strap wrench around the tripot housing and tapping that with a hammer to seat it in. Maybe even a big set of channel locks if you don't have a strap wrench.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Herbie...how is it going?

[Herbie]

Herbie...how is it going?

Been busy with "Dad" stuff, haven't had a chance to revisit. It's still torn apart in the driveway, I'm sure my neighbors are starting to hate me. Was hoping to have time for a trip to HF this week to get a strap wrench I can beat on.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Holy fast response! Well hopefully it goes together for you.

[Wiley]

I've got other issues too, but I'll put them in the suspension forum, where they belong.

I can respect a man in crisis mode who still has time to post other issues in the appropriate locations. Good luck Herbie

[Ironhide]

OK, Herbie, I know it's been 5 years since your post but how did you finally get it back in? I find myself in the same position with a left/front half shaft that came out with the stubby shaft attached. The story of I came to this point is long and embarrassing so I won't elaborate.

[Herbie]

OK, Herbie, I know it's been 5 years since your post but how did you finally get it back in? I find myself in the same position with a left/front half shaft that came out with the stubby shaft attached. The story of I came to this point is long and embarrassing so I won't elaborate.

I swallowed my pride and used one of my AAA credits to have it towed to the local shop. I'm not sure if they had a special tool or if it was just having better leverage from having it up on a lift vs. sitting on my ass on my sloped driveway. They got it seated no problem. While it was in I also "let" them do the MF'n rivets on the ball joints on the passenger side, since I was sick of messing with those too.

Man, five years ago now. It's funny how with a little distance you can forget so much pain...

The oil filter/strap wrench trick didn't work for me, but after the fact, I had one more idea: I would have cut a couple of round notches in two blocks of wood (2x4s, etc.) and bolted them together around the tri-pot housing. With big bolts, I could have really snugged them down, and maybe then that would have given me a big enough surface to whack with a hammer to drive things home. The strap wrench didn't work because it was too hard to hold it in tension while trying to whack it, etc.

[Stroverlander]

Man, reminds me of my story with the driver's side cv axle and stub axle being stuck in it. The c-clip slipped out of the groove and no amount of tapping, pounding or pulling would remove the stub axle. I finally squirted Dawn dish soap inside and was able to tap the cv axle off the stub axle in the vise. Too bad the c-clip chewed up the splines on the end of stub axle a bit. I filed the splines best I could to clean up and bough all new c-clips but it was still a little rough going in so started looking for a replacement stub axle. The cv axles are lifetime warranty from Advance Auto so at least I was able to get that replaced since the cv tripod housing took a beating and was destroyed too.

I can't decide if it's related to aging c-clips or aftermarket cv axles maybe being tighter tolerance than original.