Cv half axles
Hey tconley3
I have done the front CV half axles in my '96 WRX and did not require a special tool, mine was an Auto, but I suspect a manual car is similar. Firstly, while the car is on the ground, unlock the lock tab and loosen the main hub nut - it can be very tight. Then lift the car up off its wheels and use stands to make sure it is safe and won't fall on you - I have a hoist which is really nice. Take off the wheel, brake caliper (I hang this by a piece of wire from the spring, saves disconnecting and bleeding the brakes) and take off the disc. Take off the main hub nut. Then release the two strut to hub carrier bolts and then knock them out. Note that they are slightly different - put them back the way they came out. The hub will now hang down on the bottom ball joint. At this stage you should be able to push the drive shaft back out of the hub assembly. This is not easy, but I managed to do mine. If this cannot be done then I guess you would need to take the hub off completely by releasing the bottom ball joint. You now have the drive shaft hanging down from the gearbox. The shaft is on a spline. Inside the gearbox on the end of the spline is a radial groove on which sits a wire ring. I assume this is to stop the shaft falling out. As you pull the shaft out, this wire ring comes up against a taper in the gearbox which is supposed to compress the wire ring into the groove and allow the axle to come out. Sometimes this does not happen easily and you will need to **** it out. If it wont come out because the spline or the wire ring is damaged you have a major, major problem which I can't help you with - Gearbox disassembly I suspect. Anyway, that should have the shaft sitting on the floor. The axle shaft pulls out of the CV the same way (spline, wire ring thing). Assembly is easy, but in the reverse order. Use the factory torque settings for all the main nuts/bolts. A few things: get the wheel alignment done after the job. If you cannot get the disc caliper back on the disc, use a "G" clamp and gently push the caliper pistons back into the caliper a bit which will allow you more room between the disc and pistons. If you do this, you will need to gently pump the brake pedal a couple of times to restore the pedal, it will go straight to the floor on the first application - don't find this out on the way out of the shop!!!! Be prepared to loose some skin and get very dirty. If possible, when you have finished, get someone else to check all the bolts for tightness, leaving some of these loose could cause a serious accident.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Keith