Working on removing the pass. side driveaxle, got the wheel off,but now my manual says the tie rod needs to be removed. The manual illustrations don't seem to match what I'm looking at. Is the tie rod the thin rod coming low to the brake assembly that is threaded in the middle. If so,I seem to have a hex nut with a round coupling piece instead of 2 hex nuts like the book says. This seems to be what steers the behicle. Sorry for the vague explanations.

 

ive never had to remove the tierod to get the axle out.

 

Yes that is the tie rod. If you do a search for axle replacement you might find some usefull info. Someone will chime in with words of wisdom soon though.

 

ok....here is a very easy way...

remove the tire.....
remove the rotor and caliper....
remove the 1 bolt that holds the lower ball joint to the spindle....(the bolt is right under the axel end)
then use a large prybar..(i use my 26in. breaker bar)....stick one end of the prybar in the large oval opening in the cross member, then wedge the bar across the lower control arm and just push down a few good times until the ball joint is released....
then you can swing the strut/spindle assembly out of the way and pull the axel out

 

OK,got the rotor and caliper out. The bolt holding the lower ball joint-this is the one connecting the control arm w/the steering knuckle?(Figure 5.4 in Haynes).

 

You got it. Pop that sucker off.

 

Tried to get it off last night, wasn't able to although I didn't use full force. It just didn't seem like it was supposed to come off like that. But if it works for you,it ought to for me too(let's hope!). Thanks for the tips guys-will be calling again soon because my project involves pretty much all gaskets on the car(except the head gasket,which looks like its a MLS-there's a gold rivet sticking out between #1 and 2 intakes) plus new timing belt and waterpump while I'm doing the cam seal. So I have a long way to go........

 

trust me...it works and it wont hurt anything