Hi, my son and I were working on replacing all of the front end suspension components of the X-type (3.0 AWD) and watched countless videos re the process.

The error we made was thinking the splined halfshaft would come out of the knuckle with a few light taps of the hammer. Well it didn't and the hammer apparently bent the edge of the shaft to where the hub nut will no longer engage. The shaft appears slightly out of round and the threads seem compressed on one side. That thing is way softer than anticipated. I know, I know...

SO -
A) Is it possible to just replace the outer CV joint? Never done such a thing, never actually pulled a boot off to look inside. How does one separate the outer part from the halfshaft and the rest of it? I'm assuming this makes more sense that to pull the whole thing out of the transfer case. I have not yet removed the clamps from my outer boot. Searching didn't make it clear if removing the boot makes it obvious that there is a circlip or something that will let the whole thing just come apart which would be the best case scenario I suppose.

Step 1 - remove the larger boot clamp nearest the knuckle
Step 2 - pull the boot back
Step 3 - Now what?

B) Since the splined shaft seems frozen inside the knuckle I'm considering hitting the junkyard tomorrow and just getting another one complete with what's hopefully a good outer CV joint. (yes it means I need to tear the suspension out of that car too but and then mix and match it back together. Same questions apply I suppose to see how it comes apart

C) Or I guess see if it's possible to order just an outer CV joint inexpensively? and then try to get the splined shaft out.

The biggest problem is the car is currently occupying my out of town wife's garage spot and basically immobile now... Any help appreciated, thanks.

 

Update - I think we are going to go the ghetto fix route and grind down the end of the shaft a bit and then clean up the thread at the end with a thread file. There should still be enough thread left to engage the axle nut fully.

I absolutely cannot get the shaft to come out of the knuckle though. So far have used a lot of PBlaster (penetrating fluid), obviously the poor judgment hammer, then again with a wood block, and just now with one of those puller/pusher tools that attach to the lug studs and you screw the bar into the middle. With an impact wrench it is still not moving back out but the hole in the middle is getting a bit bigger/deeper. I added more PBlaster just now and will let it sit another night. Maybe the freezing overnight temps here will change things when I try it again in the morning.

I'm hesitant to put heat on it as I don't want to ruin the CV joint or boot, but would really love to get it apart to have the bearing pressed out and replaced. Passenger side came apart just fine...

 

I was going to suggest filing down the first few threads to get the nut on.

As a general rule when smacking a shaft keep the nut on to help protect the threads.

I often use an ox/acetylene torch to free things up.

 

I would plan to replace the wheel bearing as it is probably damaged from the hammering, if it wasn't already failing anyway.

I cut the top off a soda bottle and siliconed it inside the hub. With a small hold drilled I could insert the spray tube to fill with penetrating fluid. Liquid Wrench was the only thing that worked for me. I think it has a unique ability to dissolve the black oxide that forms between the axle and hub. I let it soak for at least 24 hours with occasional hammer tapping on the hub and some rotation to soak most of the splines. I think I used the same hub style puller you are using and it was much easier after the Liquid Wrench soak.

 

Interesting re the soda bottle! Yes the whole reason I wanted it off was to replace the wheel bearing since everything else is being replaced up front. But I don't think hammering would affect it, would it, the impact would go through the center and not affect anything laterally, no? The hub puller I was using was the cone type thing that attaches to three lug nuts, then has a threaded bar through the middle that screws in and puts pressure on the middle of the axle shaft end, I tried several times yesterday and again this morning with my impact wrench. No movement whatsoever. Either way, it doesn't matter now, because:

I ended up giving up on doing this part myself, especially as the temp outside was 0 F (-32 C) this morning with the garage only slightly warmer. I realized after lots of searching that the driver/left side CV axle is extremely easy to pull (as opposed to the passenger side one). So I went underneath, popped it out, it came right out with minimal struggle with the C-clip in place. It's remarkable how good a hold you can get on the inside end of the axle when the entire suspension has been removed. I lost a few table spoons of trans fluid which I can put back in by lowering the passenger side of the car and refilling it through the axle hole (currently plugged with a rag). Took the whole thing (axle and hub) to the machine shop, they got it out after a little bit of work, removed the old bearing, pressed in the new one I supplied, and now I just delivered them a nut as they want to grind down the end of the axle shaft to remove the mushrooming and make sure the threads work well. They believe they got it out without damaging the internals so that would work out, but I was ready to just get a new CV axle if need be, the wheel bearing is what I really wanted done as I know one or both were bad and I don't want to take the car apart again due to taking a chance and trying to save a little bit of money.

Actually I may just tilt the car to the left first and have more trans fluid drip out and catch and measure it, then tilt the car the other way and put clean fluid in to replace it before popping the axle back in...Hmm, that might work.

 

If my old brain is working today, the bearing has magnets inside for the ABS sensor. It is possible to put the bearing in backward and come up with an ABS code.

Best to look into that before you get too far.

 

Yes the magnetic side of the bearing needs to face in (towards the little black sensor, I made sure they knew that and they did do it correctly, thanks for the reminder, it's not obvious if you don't know...

And the shaft was too far gone in the end to make it work when I picked it up at the machine shop this morning, so I now had to order a new left side axle Argh, further down the cost rabbit hole. Oh well...