While I don't doubt that the top brg wears out, the lower being bad will drop the whole door so that the top rubs. It did on mine. Replaced the lower = no more rub.

 

WOW i should have posted this sooner... how do you take the axle out??? we took the tire off today, and found like 2 ball berings (those bearings are HUGE!!) and a shattered bering race just chillin on the suspension part... and now we don't know how to take it apart, as our haynes manual is 2wd only.

GOOD NEWS!!! my dad's decided to fix up his aero, as apposed to making it a trailor/w/e, because after lookin in most of the Pac. n.w., he couldn't find any awd's that he liked. YAY!!!

 

Pics would be nice.

To unbolt the axle, you need to remove that big nut holding the shaft to the wheel bearing (which sounds like it might be toast.)

Then you remove the 6-8 bolts (I can't remember how many) where the CV connects to the shaft comming out of the pumpkin. (Your head will be right under the pumkin looking towards the wheel.)

You will have to rotate the shaft some to get to all of the bolts.

 

what's the special tool needed to remove the femail version of the torx screws? i'll take pix tomorow in the daylight with my sisters new cam... way better than cell phone pix. i gotta tell you tho, those ball bearings inside that cv joint are HUGE!! (up untill recently i'm used to dealing with micro bearings on bicycle's)

 

DCRB:

To remove the CV shaft, you need to do the following:

1) Remove the rubber stop near the shock.

2) Remove the shock.

3) Stick a screw driver in one of the slots on the rotor and bear it against the steering knuckle to prevent it from turning, then remove the large nut on the shaft. You'll need a 30mm deep socket for that, but use a hex socket, not a 12-point socket.

4) Press the shaft loose from the wheel bearing with the tool you can borrow from Autozone. Don't try to press it out completely, only get it loose so you can remove the wheel bearing.

5) Remove the wheel bearing by removing a couple of bolts from behind (again using a 12-point socket)

6) Remove the bolts between the CV and the differential flange. There are six, but you need only remove the four with the Torx drive. The other two can be removed on a bench with a regular 12-point wrench (8mm I think).

Now you can pull the entire CV assembly out. Remember the two bolts we talk about in step 6? You must remove those to recover the spacer, which is reused with a new CV assembly.

I'm going strictly by memory here, so there may be something missing that others can fill in.

Good luck

 

Comments....


1) Remove the rubber stop near the shock.
It is very easy, but it is dirty.....

2) Remove the shock.
lower bolts are easy to remove, but upper nut is not so easy to do. You need special wrench, here it is about $3.

3) Stick a screw driver in one of the slots on the rotor and bear it against the steering knuckle to prevent it from turning, then remove the large nut on the shaft. You'll need a 30mm deep socket for that, but use a hex socket, not a 12-point socket.

Always use hex socket, especially if you work with impact wrench. Rounded nut is very difficult to remove.....

4) Press the shaft loose from the wheel bearing with the tool you can borrow from Autozone. Don't try to press it out completely, only get it loose so you can remove the wheel bearing.

You may carefully nock it out throught small wood bar....

5) Remove the wheel bearing by removing a couple of bolts from behind (again using a 12-point socket)

Very easy, but installing it back do not forget to lock these bolts.

6) Remove the bolts between the CV and the differential flange. There are six, but you need only remove the four with the Torx drive. The other two can be removed on a bench with a regular 12-point wrench (8mm I think).

Yeah, 8mm.....

 

eh, we took the disk off cuz we're changing the brakes at the same time