First thing, thanks for having me on your forum! I have an 04 RAM 1500 SLT with 173k miles that has been pretty good to me for about a year now up until a month ago. Driving back to work from lunch and started hearing/feeling grinding noises coming from the front. It would get louder for about 5 seconds, then make a bump, and go away for a few seconds then come back. Trouble shot it down to a bad CV axle joint that stripped out the gears on the CV and the hub. I figured, what the hell, I have a ton of other things I wanted to do so I might as well tackle all of them at the same time (upper and lower ball joints, tie rods, struts, hubs, rotors, brakes, etc.) Flash forward a month ( i have two kids and zero time so this has been a little at a time kind of project) pretty much everything is done now except the CV joint which is my biggest problem. The joint wouldn't pry off the axle so I have hammer it off. When I do that, the intermediate shaft comes off with it. For the LIFE of me, I cannot detach it. I've tried hammering, prying, grinding, sawing, dremel, etc. Pretty much everything but a plasma cutter. I think the axle is pretty much effed so I have a replacement. I'm at the point that I want to cut off the intermediate shaft with a Makita and pull the rest out. My question, right now, is if anyone has pulled off the bump stop. I think if I break the welds, hammer it out, I can pull the whole shaft assembly right out. If all this fails, i'm slapping the knuckle, tie rod, struts on, and driving it to a mechanic to have them deal with my screw up lol.

Thoughts?




Yes, I cut the CV joint because it was smoked already! lol Thanks all!

 

Can you loosen a couple bolts on the housing, and lower it down some so it will miss the bump stop?

 

I thought about that... Do you think removing the bolts to the right of the differential and the bolts holding it up on the top would lower it enough? I'm thinking that should be enough to swing it just enough?

 

That, I don't know, but, most certainly worth a shot.....

 

Ok so it went well to a point. I ended up dropping the front axle and I'm pretty sure it was the first time this thing has EVER had it's diff dropped. Every single bolt felt like it was 200 ft lb torqued because of the Loctite... I could only get about 1 full turn on a bolt and my arms were completely gassed! Regardless, I pulled out the three bolts next to the front driveshaft, the two bolts for the intermediate axle hangs on, and I left the bolts located on top of the differential in place, but loosened. All of that and it swung forward enough and the intermediate shaft with seized CV axle slid right out.

On installation, the CV axle does not slide all the way in... I think i still see about 1-2 inches of splines from the intermediate shaft and I know that can't be right. I have a feeling it's hanging on the snap ring so I have no idea how to get around it... I need to bring it in for an alignment so i think i'm going to just ask a mechanic to pull it out and push it in since they have the right equipment and I just don't have the time anymore to keep this thing in my garage....
I mean, is this correct? Any splines showing tells me is a problem because of debris getting into it. When I started this project, I noticed the splines were showing already as well... What do you think?

 

On the little stub shaft between the diff, and the inner CV joint? Doesn't the inner joint have a 'step' that goes into a seal on the end of the axle tube? If it was already poking out a ways with the original stuff in there, I wonder if you have problem inside the differential.......