well the old aod tranny finally went im my 86 so i yanked it out and a friend who works at a tranny shop is gonna rebuild it for me. while my truck was sitting in the shop i decided to change an axle joint that was getting pretty bad. so i took off the wheel, caliper, hub+rotor, and the spindle and backing plate. by the way this is on the passenger side. i went to pull out the axle shaft and i couldnt budge it for the life of me. i read the chiltons and all it said to do was take off the clamps and slide the rubber boot off the center knuckle. now the axle shaft which is splined into the knukle and stub shaft should have slid apart according to the book, but instead the clip that holds the stub shaft into the diff broke and the stub shaft came out. so now i had to remove the diff, find the broken clip and start to put it all back together. my question is- why didnt it slide off the splines like the book said, was it too rusty, or did i forget something? this was my first time taking out the passenger side axle shaft on the ifs. sorry if this post is so long.

 

It could be rusty if your truck is in water a lot, but the slip joint normally fits pretty snug and the boot itself holds on tight. It doesn't sound like you forgot anything.