Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Folks,

It's always the easy stuff that's the most difficult.
I'm in the process of dropping the front diff to change to 1:5.29 diffs after upgrading to 33"s. To do this I need to pull the driveaxles (just like when changing CV boots...).

The workshop manual and http://www.4x4wire.com/mitsubishi/tech/inner_cv/ instruct that on the left side, the driveshaft 'just pulls' out of the diff. I found there was some movement (end play), but it feels like it coming up against something.
I've done the right hand side - that's easy-street with the four bolts through the drive flange.

I've pulled as hard as possible by hand; Am I missing something?

Mine just pull out. there is a circlip in there that holds it in but easy enough to pull past it.

NJV6 wrote:Mine just pull out. there is a circlip in there that holds it in but easy enough to pull past it.

That's the story.

I couldn't do it.

My neighbour (a pretty handy bloke with his hands) couldn't do it.

We drained the oil, dropped the cover and used a large screwdriver to lever them out from the end of the shaft. Pretty easy in the end.

Yeah I've had to remove the diff cover only once to get the left CV add.
Probably removed it 6 or so times by sliding it in all the way and reefing on it backwards and fowards. The circlip can definitely bind up in there.
Another way is to clamp something to the shaft (vice grips or G clamp) and gently tap that.
Sometimes they just need a shockload to get the circlip through the sidegear but you haven't got a lot of room to move under there.
In theory the circlip is a one use item and should be replaced everytime the CV is pulled but nobody does this in reality and this can make subsequent removals more difficult as the circlip distorts more and more.

Thanks folks; got the drive axle out in the end with a little hammer action applied to some polygrips on the shaft. Thanks for that pearl Bitsamissin.

Got the new front diff in; turns out the left driveaxle shaft is a different diameter in the new (5.29) diff (same length). Fortunately I had the driveaxles from the donor vehicle so we're all back on the road now.

What a difference with the new ratios! I was running 4:875 and 33" tyres, this was a 10% reduction in torque at the wheels compared with the factory 30.5". This meant that the truck would have to drop a gear on even the slightest highway inclines.

So with the new tyres, and the new ratios, the speedo is reading pretty much bang on GPS speed.