Hi all,
I'm in the process of of replacing driver's side bearing hub on 07 4x4. I have 2 of the bolts loose. I'm trying to remove axle so I can get it out of the way and use impact wrench to get these 3 bolts out.

There's very little leverage to try and pop off the axle from transfer case so I'm stuck right now. Any suggestions on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. I have attached picture of axle.

thanks
Brent

 

Usually you remove the tie rod and the upper ball joint and remove the axle from the hub. You don't need to remove the axle from the differential and even if you want to remove it you need to remove the axle from the hub first before removing it from the differential.

 

Best way to get it loose is to climb under the truck and give the cv housing a hard hit with a hammer/mallet...should just take one good hit. There is not a whole lot of room to work with but this is the easiest way get it loose. There is a retaining clip on the spline shaft coming from the front diff holding the axle in place.

When you do get it loose from the diff there will not be enough room to get the axle out without removing the upper ball joint and tie rod end.

Also like gcburkett said make sure the axle shaft is free from the hub. My left front axle was seized in the hub and it took heat and a sledge to get it loose.

 

Put the hub nut back onto the hub and tighten it down to just flush with the threads on the cv shaft.
Get a soft metal drift flush with the nut and smack it with a sledge to free off the cv from the backside of the hub
Loosen off the nut and with the tie rod and top ball joint off, push and pull out the cv shaft from the splines of the hub.
You will then have all the room in the world to get an impact gun to the three bolts on the backside of the hub.
Don't forget to spray the heck out of the cv shaft and hub splines with PB blaster etc.
I just did this last week replacing my two front hubs.
Works like a charm.
Al.

 

I just did this about a week ago as well on my driver side hub. As others have said, PB blaster is your friend.

1. wheel off,
2. brake caliper and bracket off
3. brake rotor off
4. disconnect ABS sensor wiring
5. remove axle nut - 36mm
6. tie rod end off - 21mm
7. separate upper ball joint - 21mm
8. lean the top half of the knuckle out
9. use a hub/gear puller to push the spline out of the wheel hub back towards the diff (I left it in the diff with no problems)
10. remove the 3 hub bolts - 18mm
11. use a slide hammer to pull the hub out of the knuckle (i didn't have a slide hammer, so I just had to beat the back side of the outer flange (where the studs are) until it came out.

you can rent the gear puller and slide hammer from your local AutoZone or OReilly's

replacement is reverse just make sure you put the dust cover on correctly, because it will make you pretty upset when you have to tear it all back apart to fix something so simple (ask me how I know....)