I am in the middle of trying to replace the half shaft axle in a 02 ram 1500 4x4 and went to pull on the axle to get it past the retaining ring and the inner boot broke. Then tried pry bars and even hooked up a 4x4 4-wheeler and tried to yank it off but I cant get it to move past that retaining ring... Any ideas?

 

I recommend patience among other things. The first time I had mine out the driver side would not come out. I was removing to install my 4.56 gears. So what I ended up doing to save time was remove the passenger side shaft, then pulling the diff with the driver side shaft still in. Even then it was a pain to get out. When you get it out, put some anti-seize on the splines and it should come right out from now on.

I big rubber mallet and long drift/punch are your best options other than a prybar of course.