CV Half-Shafts, joints all messed up - Need Help ASAP

[Jeeves]

FYI: 1994 (Stock) Automatic 1MZ-FE (V6)

Alright, I can do a full 7M Motor swap in 1/2 a day but I swear, I can't do a set of CV Half-Shafts in 6hrs. Here's what happened (Drivers side):

- Bought two Re-Manufactured HS's
- Loosened Wheels
- Jacked up Car
- Removed Wheels
- Removed Cotter Pin
- Removed Castle Nut
- Spun Tie-Rod Shaft to remove Tie Rod from Shaft
- Unbolted the bottom of the brake assembly from the lower control arm.
- Pressed the HS an inch into the rotor
- Rotated brake assembly 70º to remove HS
- HS Free of brake assembly, but refuses to separate from the side of the transmission.
- Smacked the stuck portion with an iron spike and it separated.
- Packed the new CV boot with grease, cleaned the existing seat
- Pressed the end into the seat, installed two bolts
- Installed the other 4 bolts.

Now, here's where it started sucking.

We tried to put the shaft back into the brake assembly but it didn't want to go freely. So, we used the floor jack and lifted the assembly so that it had a more straight shot. It slid in freely, but refused to turn smoothly. We pulled the wheel back off and observed that the shaft itself looked funny, I didn't think to get out my camera, so here's an explaination:

Where you'd think the halfshaft would need to sit in the center of the transmission "cup", it wasn't. It looked like it was sitting in the very bottom, and was sticking at a very odd (agressive) downward (toward the brake assembly) angle. It had some degrees of motion, but not much. It was incredibly stiff to turn and would not make a full circle or straighten out.

Now, we thought "ok, that's just the Drivers side, so we tried the passenger side.." well we ran into the same issue, however, when we went to remove it, all the bearings fell out. So, we exchanged it for another and have yet to put it in. I've got the haynes sitting here and it talks about snap rings, and all kinds of things which I can't even find on this car. So, I'm totally at a loss as to what's going wrong. This should have been an easy two man job and it's turned into a multi-day nightmare. Looking through the Toyota Factory Repair manual, I can see a few things I did wrong (i.e. I was supposed to pull the HS with the part that goes into the transmission (I thought they were supposed to separate), but still that doesn't explain why I was having such issues with the joints. As far as I know I was just supposed to pack it with grease decently (boot wasn't buldging or anything like that) move it around a bit, and install.

So, I am hoping someone can give words of wisdom or maybe photos, or something. I've searched and can't turn up anyone else having this same issue. I guess I'm just CV Half-Shaft retarded.

Thanks,
James

[Jeeves]

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