Replacing stock axel

[weirdman77]

I have had my car for a while and lately i have been hearing some grinding noises
i took it to my uncle and he is a manager at a dealership and he said that it would cost about 300 dollers for some one to fix it and i was wondering if it would be hard to replace it my self. i think i have all the right tools but he said somthing about the bearings if they wheren't put in right then it is all messed up and im screwed so i dont' know what to do pay out the money or try to do it my self. i would like to know what the chances are that i would be able to put one on right by myself.

 

[weirdman77]

oh ya by the way i have a 93 civic hatch manual tranny

 

[deth101]

yes you should do it your self ,not too hard,as far as bearings go as long as you dont slam the hell out of it you will be fine,my axels go all the time and I wait until I hear metal on metal to change em but I dont get embarassed by the noise so......do a search on how to and if you cant find anything let me know,I'll read ya through the helms

 

[MikeBergy]

Axles are pretty easy, with exception of geting the lower ball joint apart on the suspension, that is the hardest part. other than that, it is straight forward. drain your tranny first though, otherwise you will have a mess. The bearings are pretty durable, so I wouldn't worry about them unless you plan on using your axles as a hammer before installing them. good luck, it shouldn't cost more than 100 bucks at most to DIY.

 

[MikeBergy]

p.s. You shouldn't have to touch any of the bearings at all, just buy rebuilt shafts from autozone or something, and turn in your old ones for the core charge after you've done the work.

 

[h22bubbleback]

the axle nuts r spiked and a bitch to remove

 

[MikeBergy]

the axle nut is nothing as long as you have a good breaker bar. Just remember to leave the car on the ground when you take it off.

 

[h22bubbleback]

Originally posted by MikeBergy@Dec 15 2003, 05:55 PM
the axle nut is nothing as long as you have a good breaker bar. Just remember to leave the car on the ground when you take it off.

incorrect...it is very common that a breaker bar will not remove an axle nut... used a ghetto rigged 10 ft pipe for levrage(SP?) and nothing...iv had to bust out the cutting wheel

cutting wheel

 

[MikeBergy]

It's not really a big deal, as I've done both axles on my teg twice over the last 120k miles, and that nut was the least of my worries. I just used a screwdriver and a hammer to tap the notch back out.

 

[thagreybomber]

Originally posted by MikeBergy@Dec 16 2003, 02:28 AM
It's not really a big deal, as I've done both axles on my teg twice over the last 120k miles, and that nut was the least of my worries.

Did you have a hard time separating the driver side axle from the intermediate/halfshaft? I know I had such a hard time, I dropped off the whole axle/halfshaft at my local machine shop to work their magic.

 

[Bl6CRX]

Originally posted by thagreybomber+Dec 17 2003, 01:40 AM-->

MikeBergy

@Dec 16 2003, 02:28 AM
It's not really a big deal, as I've done both axles on my teg twice over the last 120k miles, and that nut was the least of my worries.

Did you have a hard time separating the driver side axle from the intermediate/halfshaft? I know I had such a hard time, I dropped off the whole axle/halfshaft at my local machine shop to work their magic.

whenever I change axles i just use the ball joint fork to seperate them from the half shaft since i have it out anyway...

 

[MikeBergy]

Did you have a hard time separating the driver side axle from the intermediate/halfshaft? I know I had such a hard time, I dropped off the whole axle/halfshaft at my local machine shop to work their magic.

I've never had a problem with that, as it's about the same as taking the passenger side out of the tranny. I just used one of those flat prybars and tapped it into the crack between the half shaft and the int. shaft with a rubber mallet. worked really efficiently.