Replacing Rear Half Shaft

[weeman1]

hey everyone, last saturday night i broke a rear axle, ive had a search and cant find anything

just wondering if anyone has done a tutorial on how to replace one, ive got the centre nut off, just not sure where to go from there.

if anyone could share their experiences it would be much appreciated

thanx

[weeman1]

anyone got any idea?

[BHDave]

You've done the hard part now.

All thats left are the 5 bolts at the diff and you pop the drive shaft out.

Depending on which side of the car it is you have to drop the exhaust to give yourself a bit of room.

You might have to tap the driveshaft out as the splines tend to bind up.

[weeman1]

ah cool thanx, yeh was just wondering how to get it out of the hub, wasn't sure if it was bolted in or not. tried pushing it out last night, didn't work lol. ill get a rubber mallet or something. do you have to undo anything else on the suspension? or just drop the exhaust and put the new one in?

[BHDave]

It's only held in with the 36mm nut at the hub end and the bolts at the diff. If it doesn't slip out just get a bigger hammer seeing as it's already buggered.

You don't even need to remove the exhaust if you have the room to get at the nuts and bolts, but i usually just drop it off the hangers to make life easier. There's plenty of room to get the shafts in and out either way.

[weeman1]

hey mate, ive removed the exhaust and the broken axle,

is there a handy trick to get the new axle in? im having a bit of trouble getting it in,

[BHDave]

You should have enough room somewhere around the diff housing to slot the drive shaft past the housing and then feed the splines back into the hub.

On an r32 there's room above the diff to do it

[weeman1]

yeh i can only go from underneath, no room above it.

ill work out a way soon, hopefully.

thanx for your help, its been very usefull

cheers

[Duncan]

a little bit of grease on the splines will help it slip in, and clean both the spline on the driveshaft and hub first. must have been a good burnout to break one of those.

[weeman1]

thanx, but the problem i have is getting the axle up over the subframe and into the spline, any tips on how to get it in without undoing any suspension arms?

im really stuck, and need my car to get to work, i miss driving it lol

[weeman1]

hey, i just want to thank everyone for their help, so thanx

ive taken my car to the mechanic as im unable to get the hub out myself, so should be on the road sometime today, yay

thanx again