V6 owners don't have to deal with axle shafts stuck in carrier bearings, but I found a couple of caveats when replacing axles, especially if don't have an impact wrench. First, before you put the car in the air, take the cotter pin and castellated cap off the axle and loosen the axle nut. Just crack it loose an eighth turn or so with a 1 3/16" socket (30mm?) and breaker bar. Use a piece of pipe over the breaker bar if you have to. A standard depth socket worked fine on my non-ABS car. If you can't budge it, buy an impact wrench or take it somewhere with an impact wrench. DO NOT drive or even roll the car with the nut loose - the wheel bearing will be ruined, fast.
Second, after the car's in the air and the wheel is off, break the 8mm inner joints bolts loose. If you can't get them loose or - worse - you round them out trying to get them loose, put the wheel back on and take it to someone who can get them loose. BMR suggested lots of 1/2" extensions and a breaker bar and it works:
Clean any crud out of the hex bolt heads. Just take a small screwdriver and scrape it out. Then stick the hex driver in the bolt and attach enough extensions so you can swing a breaker bar outside the wheel well. Before you put the breaker bar on, take a small sledge hammer and whack the extension face-on. You want to shock the bolt so any rust on the threads gets broken. Don't be shy, hit it hard. You won't bang up your extension too bad. Then put the breaker bar on and TIGHTEN the bolt. See if you can feel the threads break loose. If you can feel it break then it will loosen easily. The reason for tightening it first is that if you're going to round out the bolt, you want to round it out the opposite way - righty tighty - rather than risk rounding it out so it will never come out except with a cutting torch.
BMR suggested to use a 1/2" drive hex socket, about 16 bucks. That's the right thing to do. I'm cheap and got away with a $4.99 "Brake Caliper Tool Set" from Checker/O'Reilly. 3/8" drive but supposedly for an impact wrench (they're black anyway) and it includes an 8mm hex socket. I used a 1/2 x 3/8 adapter on the 1/2" extension:
If you're lucky and get all of the hex bolts loose, take off the tie rod and the three control arm nuts/bolt out to get the room to remove the shaft. The tie rod end came off after I smacked the side of the casting with a sledge hammer, put the castellated nut on to protect the threads, and tapped the nut with a hammer. No need to unbolt the sway bar like the manual says.
Considering the lack of quality of reman'd axles (lifetime warranty or not), make it easier remove it next time by putting some oil on the tie rod taper before you put it back together, and torque the hex bolts to factory spec (48 foot pounds) so they come back out when you want them to:
Linear Mode
