Ron, sorry I did not get back to you sooner. If you are doing it on the garage floor I would really recommend the axle replacement as opposed to re-booting them. The down and dirty on them would be something like this:
1) Put it on jack stands and remove the front wheels.
2) Remove both of the axle nuts, one per side.
3) Remove both of the tie rod end nuts, one per side, and pop the tie rods out of their place in the steering knuckle. The job can be done without this step but I find it easier to lean the strut assembly out of my way with it disconnected from the steering. The quickest way to undo tie rod ends is to remove the nut entirely, the reinstall it as far as you can thread it on by hand and then take a 18-36 ounce hammer and smack the knuckle where the tie rod goes through as hard as you can 1-2 times and it will pop right out, take the nut back off and slide it out of the knuckle. Both sides.
4) Remove the link rods from the stabilizer bar, both sides.
5) Remove the pinch bolts from the lower ball joint, both sides.
6) Undo ABS speed sensor harness, again it just makes it a little easier.
7) With the ball joint still in the bottom of the knuckle give the end of the axle (where the nut goes on) a couple of really good whacks with a dead blow to see if it is going to cooperate and come loose.
8) Now here is the bitch, getting the ball joint to slide out of the bottom of the steering knuckle. I have see 25 year+ master techs loose their minds trying to get one of these out. The only trick I have (and it works everytime) may not be so hot on the garage floor. I reach up from underneath (I work on a hoist), grab the lower control arm in both hands and give a fast, hard, yank and most often it will slide right out. If you try to coax it out with a prybar it just seems to get bound up big time and not come out. So, if you can get under it and give it a mighty yank it will probably pop right through, do not be afraid to use liberal amounts of PB Blaster or something like it.
9) Once the balljoints are undone you can pull the strut and knuckle assembly towards you and stuff the axle back through. Push it through and peel strut and knuckle assembly off to one side.
10) With it seperated you need to pop the driver's side out of the trans. This is best done with the biggest screwdriver you have. The factory tool for this is very cool but I always go for the big screwdriver first and on the very rare ocassion that I cannot get it with that then I have to go factory all the way.
11) On the passenger side just shoot the two 12mm bolts out of the bearing cap that attaches on the bottom of the engine block and the axle will slide right out as an assembly.
12) They always preached to us in Vovo school that you had to put these plastic keepers in the holes where the axles go while you have them out or the spider gears could fall down or out, I've always used them just because they keep it from leaking out of those holes but I know techs that never have and they don't seem to have problems with "falling spiders".
13) On the install it should be a cake walk. The passenger's side should all but fall back in with no hassles and the driver's side made need a little persuading. Get it started back in the case, all lined up and engaging the splines in the trans and then give it a few love taps with a big ass dead blow and it will pop right back in.
14) Once in, it is a straightforward reversal of the above procedure, bearing cap, axles through the bearing hub in the knuckle, ball joints and pinch bolts installed, link rod installed, tie rod installed, axle nut installed, ABS wheel sensor installed, torque everything torqued down, spin the brake rotor by hand to see if anything hits, adjust for it, put the wheel on and torque it down.
That is it in a nut shell, I am decent on a key board and I'd have to say that it took me as long or longer to type this up than it would to bang out the axle. Now re-booting it takes about 30-45 minutes per side.
Mark
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