Update on the driveshaft repair

[the_bard]

For y'all who haven't been following, I've been wanting to replace the right front driveshaft on my '92 Loyale... and I finally got around to it yesterday. Here's a play-by-play account:

 

1. Got the hubcap off, found a dead & dessicated (sp?) mouse. Removed it, then broke the lugnuts loose.

2. Jacked the ol' girl up, put the jackstand under it, and repositioned the jack (in hopes that if the jackstand failed, the jack would either take up the load or give me enough time to get out from under her if it failed).

3. Pulled the tire off. Realized I forgot to undo the negative battery cable, opened the hood, and undid it.

4. Looked things over until I realized what Chilton's meant about the parking brake cable bracket on the lower control arm. Removed the bolts holding it down.

5. Started on the spring pin in the inner CV joint. Pounded on it using various screwdrivers, nails, all with a heavy rubber mallet. Nothing worked.

6. Walked a few blocks down to the local hardware store, bought a pin punch of the right size. Considered buying a ball peen hammer, decided price was too high. Returned, pounded on the pin some more. No go .

7. Walked a good 3/4 mile to Advance Auto Parts... bought a ball peen hammer and a Sierra Mist. Returned. Removed pin in about two minutes .

8. Feeling triumphant. Located retaining bolts on brake caliper assembly. Failed in attempt to break loose bolts. Walked back to local hardware store, bought 12" length of pipe to extend socket wrench handle length (poor man's breaker bar). Returned. Broke loose bolts. Held caliper rump roast'y up with bent metal clothes hanger.

9. Removed four bolts on hub. Realized bolts connect rotor to hub, and do not allow removal of hub :boohoo:.

10. Convinced fiance's sister to drive me to Autozone, to "borrow" a puller. Autozone informs me I need a slide hammer, and accompanied flange, and they did not have the flange. Drove back to my Subaru, looked situation over again.

11. Fiance returned home. Drove her car up to Autozone, borrowed puller. Returned, pulled rotor and hub off within ten minutes. Drove back to Autozone, returned puller. Realized I spent more time in traffic than removing hub and rotor :madder:.

12. Removed pinch bolts connecting axle bearing housing to lower control arm and strut. Attempted removal of castle nut on tie-rod end. Realized that tie-rod bolt keeps turning with castle nut, and there's no visibly easy way to retard bolt movement & allow castle nut to turn .

13. Realized the sun was an hour away from going down, and I was in the middle of a college parking lot, where artificial lighting was unavailable. Considered amount of bolts that still needed to be removed, along with troublesome tie-rod bolt & nut.

14. Started cursing. Replaced everything before sun went down. Drove a few miles to test drive reassembly.

 

Everything looks good so far... at least I put everything back together right. Now that I've taken *almost* everything apart, it looks like I'll be able to get back to my previous repair state within an hour or two, after I figure out what I'm going to do about that tie-rod end. From what I could tell, there's no way I can hold that bolt from revolving while moving the castle nut. Looks like I'll have to order another tie-rod end (I'm not going to expect to find the bolt that goes on the end of it... ), and borrow a hacksaw to remove the bolt.

 

Sounds like a soap-opera...

[GeneralDisorder]

You shouldn't have to remove the tie-rod at all - just remove the inner lower control arm bolt (easy), and unbolt the sway bar link (also easy). At this point, the whole hub will swing free, and the axle will pop off the tranny (assuming you've removed the spring pins). Then just beat the old axle out with a sledge, and a block of wood. There's a great post about this in the archives....

 

http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2576&highlight=axle+removal

 

Like Ed says - 45 minutes - start to finish!