Thanks a million Cyorke, i spoke to a Toyota mechanic last night and he was saying pretty much the same thing, he suggested to take the driveshaft off the car and replace the outer boot through the inner CV assy. he said they will not usually remove the outer CV due to the snap ring. I have been trying to replace the boot without removing the shaft from the car. big job for such a cheap part. another thing was getting the control arm bolts off, my goodness they were tight. my Snap-On sockets were getting a tough workout.Cyorke said:are you putting it in any kind of vice or something simialr. IT will make it a lot easier.
use a good sized hammer nad a brass punch if you can. the brass will deform and not cause damage to the joint, unless you jsut dont care about the old one. There is a snap ring that holds it on to the axle shaft. Sometimes you ahve to hit it pretty hard ofr it to come off. IF you use a punch of some sort you can hit it right up against where the shaft goes into the joint assembly. SOmetimes you will get a slight amount of movement from teh joint on the shaft since the only thing holding it on is the snap ring.
The vice is key though. You need to make sure the axle doesnt move when you are hitting it witht he hammer.
