Jeep CV axle

[Jiminvirginia]

Have spent days trying to get the driver side cv axle out of the front differential. I have tried copius amounts of pb blaster, slide hammers, pry bars and a 2 ton winch. Nothing. Stuck hard. Now thinking about buying one of the tiny teenie weenie nuclear bombs that Lichenstein sells. Any other ideas?

[Marty T.]

Wasn't on a Jeep, but I spent the better part of a day trying to remove a CV joint and finally took a cutting torch and got it off only to realize that there was a snap ring that I hadn't noticed holding it on. That may be something to check. Good luck.

[Allen]

On tough repair jobs I normally start cussing (to myself). Sometimes I get so frustrated that I actually make up words. I almost always get the job done eventually so this must work.

[Allen]

Have you tried YouTube for reference? You may have to view more than one video. I find them helpful sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yugt8zYfz_o

[Sunray]

How much penetrating oil did you use? It's probably rusted in there.
https://mobiloil.com/en/article/car-maintenance/car-maintenance-archive/ten-steps-to-replacing-cv-axles

[pcox]

Copious amounts of Kroil can't hurt. It eats rust.

[Jiminvirginia]

Have you tried YouTube for reference? You may have to view more than one video. I find them helpful sometimes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yugt8zYfz_o

Youtube is great for auto repairs. I think I checked all the vids for this with no luck though. I was speaking to a mechanic today. He suspects that the axle is seized to the differential bearing so I am likley looking at some extensive work.

- - - Updated - - -


How much penetrating oil did you use? It's probably rusted in there.
https://mobiloil.com/en/article/car-maintenance/car-maintenance-archive/ten-steps-to-replacing-cv-axles
Used most of the can. Its been dripping penetrating oil.

[togor]

What symptom has you wanting to pull the half shaft in the first place? Bad CV joint or some problem inside the differential? And is this an open or limited slip differential?

[Jiminvirginia]

What symptom has you wanting to pull the half shaft in the first place? Bad CV joint or some problem inside the differential? And is this an open or limited slip differential?
All started with load banging noise on acceleration felt under driver seat. Investigated front drive axle and found one cv joint boot torn up. Got rebuild kit and fixed that. Joint was obviously bad. Put front driveshaft back in and test drove. Still had a noise, not as bad, but seemed to be coming from driver side front tire. Looked closely at cv axle, boots looked ok but joint at differential seemed a little loose. I could have misread the symptons. Hope not. Had a similiar problem with a Ford Explorer front drive axle. Loud banging noise. Front u joint was just a tiny bit loose. Replaced u joint and noise went away.

[togor]

All started with load banging noise on acceleration felt under driver seat. Investigated front drive axle and found one cv joint boot torn up. Got rebuild kit and fixed that. Joint was obviously bad. Put front driveshaft back in and test drove. Still had a noise, not as bad, but seemed to be coming from driver side front tire. Looked closely at cv axle, boots looked ok but joint at differential seemed a little loose. I could have misread the symptons. Hope not. Had a similiar problem with a Ford Explorer front drive axle. Loud banging noise. Front u joint was just a tiny bit loose. Replaced u joint and noise went away.

How old is this Jeep? And what model?

[Jiminvirginia]

2007 Cherokee Laredo. All wheel drive. 212,000 miles.

[togor]

So that should be a half-shaft CV assembly for that model, right? And you've already removed the wheel bearing and now you're trying to get the half-shaft out? It's on splines, maybe it was a tight fit originally. Not sure if you get a locked axle with the other 3 wheels on the ground and the unit in PARK, but some combination of back/forth torsion on the shaft (fwd/reverse torque on the half-shaft with the differential locked to the other wheel and xfer case) combined with some pulling might start to get it to move. If not, then they have to crack the differential.

[Jiminvirginia]

True on half shaft. Wheel bearing out. That took half a day BTW. Tried neutral, park,etc. Already opened diff. No help really. Sprayed suspect area with penetrating oil.

[togor]

Wheel bearings are tough sometimes. Up here in rust country I use a lot of kroil and an air hammer on some sacrificial bolts to break the rust on the flange, and that moves things along. Do you have an impact? I'm thinking that running that wheel nut up and down a couple of times will give some torque on the shaft that might loosen the hangup on the splines. I'm also trying to think how one might use that wheel nut as a puller, if it can be braced. This is certainly not normal.

[Jiminvirginia]

You gave me an idea. Stop gears from turning in diff. Put axle nut back on and torque shaft to try and free it up.