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DIY Axle (half-shaft) Replacement Guide

59K views 37 replies 17 participants last post by  terryweasely 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Good write-up. I did my driver's side axle tonite and here are some additional tips.

An impact wrench and a 36 mm socket will easily remove the axle nut without prying out the staked indentation.

I tried popping out the lower ball joint, but no luck. Didn't have the right tools and an air hammer on the knuckle did nothing. The ball joint is stud-end up (opposite Accords and Civics) and normal tools won't work. Don't know if the Accord socket trick on YouTube would work, but I'll try it next time.

Plan B follows the happywrenching post. Remove the two strut bolts and the brake hose bracket bolt. You do not have to remove the wheel speed sensor. For the driver's side turn the steering wheel all the way to the left. With a little pushing and prying, the outer joint will come out of the hub.

There have been other posts on this site about difficulties popping the inner CV joint out from the transmission. I found a Wonder Bar is perfect for prying.

Mine would not come out :eek: , but I kept rotating the axle and prying and when I reached a certain position, it popped right out. :D

181 ft-lbs for the axle nut is best with the tire on the ground. Harbor Freight sell an inexpensive 300 ft-lb torque wrench (item #808) that will work for this and tightening harmonic damper bolts.
 
#3 ·
Good points and its funny you should mention the ball joint as I just added that step in case someone wanted to go in that direction.

The only thing I would advise is that to keep as much load off of the axle when tightening the nut - if you can, keep the wheels off of the ground.
 
#7 · (Edited)
The Haynes manual advises tightening the axle nut to spec after putting the wheel back on with the center cap removed and lowering the van.

But then I had to remove the wheel again to stake the nut; I couldn't stake it effectively through the center cap hole. Good thing my cordless impact wrench makes wheel removal & installation a snap.

 
#5 ·
How in the world do you get the inner bolt loose on the intermediate shaft. I've tried it from all angles and I just can't seem to get it.
 
#6 · (Edited)
You don't really need to remove the intermediate shaft to replace the half shaft. I used a long 1/2" diameter metal tree stake and a hammer to punch out the half-shaft housing from the intermediate shaft bearing assembly.

I did this job yesterday and ended up deforming the the lower ball joint stud with my fancy ball joint separator tool. Those ball joints are wedged in pretty tight after 175K miles ... sounded like a shotgun blast when it came apart. Now I have the motivation to replace the lower control arms, which have rotted compliance bushings. I used a pickle fork to separate the ball joint on the driver's side since I'm going to be replacing the LCA. I replaced both half shafts ... now just waiting for the lower control arms to arrive.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I used a ball joint separator tool on the passenger side lower ball joint and ended up deforming the threads on the stud to where the nut would no longer thread. Use these tools with caution. The tool may work fine for shorter ball joints, but I had the jaws almost as wide as they can open and it was squeezing the stud at an angle.



You can see the deformed ball joint stud on the right. I used a pickle fork and a big hammer to separate the other one. Didn't care about saving the boot since I was replacing the lower control arms.

 
#12 ·
Thanks for the various authors on this thread. I'm going to attempt to replace the driver's side axle on my '09 tomorrow. Question about the Plan B option (from HappyWrenching): if I do that method, do I have to get an alignment done after everything is back together? I happened to get some pages from the service manual, and if I read them correctly when changing the alignment you mess with that 2 damper bolts that are in Plan B.

Thanks in advance!
 
#13 ·
I used a ball joint separator tool on the passenger side lower ball joint and ended up deforming the threads on the stud to where the nut would no longer thread.
I did this job yesterday and ended up deforming the the lower ball joint stud with my fancy ball joint separator tool.
Oh yeah, been there done that! Honda sells a cap that threads over the end of the stud for that very reason. I didn't know about that when I bought the separator from HF. I was able to salvage my threads with the help of a thread file though, so no new ball joint.

Excellent thread, thanks for the link and tips!
 
#14 ·
Sorry - one more set of questions to go along with my post #12:

If I use Plan A or Plan B, should I replace the those 2 damper pinch bolts (Plan A) or the castle nut (Plan B)? The service manual states replace but I don't know if they are being ultra conservative or not.

I am already planning to use a new spindle nut regardless.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Save your money and get the inexpensive but reliable electric corded impact wrench from harbor freight Electric Impact Wrench - 1/2" This is the lowest sale price you can get it for. Grab one now. You really do not want to waste money on cordless impact wrench. Not only is it less powerful it will not last long. But this HF impact will work great on majority of your needs from lug nut removal to suspension work. I also highly recommend this matching socket set.... 13 Pc 1/2 in. Drive Metric Impact Deep Wall Socket Set. Good luck.

BTW, you use the impact wrench for fastener removal and the torque wrench for tightening back to specs. 80 ft lb for lugs.
 
#21 ·
What is the indicator that the half shafts need replaced? I had serious steering wheel wobble a while back, my father in-law, mechanic, convinced me to change the driver side out. we did and it seemed to help along with new tires. now the steering wheel does not wobble but the car shakes or shudders under light acceleration between 50 and 65 mph. i'm wondering if the passenger side now needs replaced or if this is a different issue all together.
 
#22 ·
Nitely2, thanks for your reply. I was not familiar with this option. Every time I enter Harbor made-in-china Freight I get the feeling that I am in a Dollar Store, but there is something to be said for inexpensive tools that will be used infrequently by the DIY'er. I will give it consideration.
 
#23 ·
I got one of those HF units for Christmas, I'm not impressed. I didn't feel like getting my air gun out so I unboxed the HF unit. I forget what I was doing, lugnuts maybe. It just made noise, didn't loosen anything. The thing is also kinda big to deal with. I dragged out the hose with my $120 Northern Tool air impact rated at a max of 800ft/lbs (they all see to rate them higher than reality), zip zip and done. I don't know how well the battery ones work. Sinbad, keep us posted if you go with one.
 
#25 ·
Will do. Generally, I subscribe to Ben Franklin's wisdom:

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
 
#24 · (Edited)
Well, if you compare the smaller / lighter air gun with more torque power then of course its gonna be night and day. But unable to remove anything is the opposite of my experience. The sucker is heavy thats for sure. But it gets the job done with about the same effort that you give for you air impact. Funny is that I don't even notice the weight anymore-got used to it over the years I guess. If you handle it correctly with some muscles, it removes most of the fasteners you'll encounter - given the size limitation of the tool of course. Having no compressor noise is a plus though. For 40 bucks, you can't beat that.
 
#26 ·
The price is right for sure. Maybe I went into it with too much expectation. I'll try it again at some point but I thought it should have removed what I put it on. I am a bit spoiled with my current gun and my decent sized compressor is pretty quiet so a non-issue. The size of the unit does not help, my air gun fits into tight spaces. I will find a use for the HF unit at some point....maybe. Don't get me wrong, I have a bunch of HF stuff including other airtools, grinder, hand tools and a press. Most have exceeded expectations. I refuse to buy anything rechargeable from there though.
 
#27 ·


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#29 ·
#34 ·
I just thought I’d pass along some pearls of wisdom on replacing the half shafts on a Honda Odyssey (mine’s a 2007 LX). I completed this task this past weekend, but not without some major struggles. In a job like this, one needs to understand that the biggest frustration is going to be when something doesn’t come loose (as it always is with car mechanic-ing). There are 3 places that this happened to me —here’s what they are and how I dealt with them.

1) The axle nut would not come loose. I couldn’t get either one to loosen with a 1/2” breaker bar plus a pipe for extra leverage. Standing on the breaker bar, bouncing on it, hitting it with a 4 lb hammer, none of those worked. So I borrowed a friend’s electric impact wrench. That worked on the driver side but passenger side still wouldn’t budge. Finally I bought an air impact wrench and this did the trick after only 15 seconds of application. For reference, the electric impact tool could deliver about 250 ft.lbs of torque while the air tool had about twice that, and that double torque is what it took. So plan in advance for some serious torque application.

2) The ball joint would not come loose. I thought mine would come off easy since I had the lower A arms replaced about a year ago, with new ball joints. But it was not to be. Ball joints are notorious for being difficult to separate anyway, and since there is the alternative to separate at the strut mount, I highly recommend going that route. I found it was just as easy to get the axle out that way, so save yourself a headache.

3) I could not get the passenger side axle to separate from the intermediate axle. Several other people have reported this problem and it’s a real bear. Forget trying to pry them apart by sticking something up between where they join —there’s not enough room to get good leverage or force. And there's no easy way to bang on the end of the CV joint because of the exhaust and the heat shield are in the way. I ended up removing the 3 bolts that hold the heat shield and moving it aside. That allowed me to insert from the driver side direction my trusty tire tool (a 11/16” diameter, 24” long steel rod) up against the CV housing, and then 2 hard hits with a 4 lb hammer on the tool separated the joint. So that’s what worked for me.

Hopefully passing along my experience will save readers some aggravation when they try it. Forewarned is forearmed. Good luck.
 
#36 ·
Did this a couple months ago on our 2003 EX. Getting ready to sell it, so I just installed a set of Cardone axles. Only have a few thousand miles on these, but the difference on the freeway is phenomenal, namely no more steering wheel shake at freeway speed.

I just used by 1-inch drive tools (42-inch breaker bar with 1-inch drive-to-3/4-inch drive reducer into a 36mm impact-rated 6-sided axle socket). However, I did first remove the front wheels, removed the center caps, reinstalled the wheels, then I had the wifey put max effort onto the brake pedal (engine running) so as not to impart any potential misery to the rest of the driveline. Call me cautious, and it worked well.

I'm a fan of big tools for big jobs.

The hydraulic floor jack trick sounds like a winner. :cool:

OF
 
#37 ·
Just replaced Drivers side half axle via plan B. The hub nut was on so tight that the floor jack method did not work. Lifted the left side clean off the stand even when I stood on the bar (LOL). Finally chiseled the nut off. Other than that, everything was smooth.
The inner knuckle on the half axle was shot. I have seen that twice before on Ody axles, both on the left/passenger side. At 700K between two gen 2 Odys, that is not bad but I wonder about the strength of the inner part of the axle, particularly the clip that holds the inner axle in place. In all three cases, that cir-clip seems to have fatigued to the point that it popped out with no effort when I removed the axle. When that clip lets loose the spline backs out a bit and causes a good deal of vibration at higher speeds.
Had to re-balance tires and get another alignment but the ride is now smooth at 70 - 80 mph.
 
#38 ·
Harbor Freight used to sell a 12v impact for removing wheel lug nuts. I have removed Toyota crankshaft pulley bolts and the most difficult we removing mower blade bolts on my commercial mower deck. It free spins up to speed then then engages for really hard whack. Could not find it on their website. I'll check it out next time I'm in the store. It is cheaply made but removed many difficult bolts before having to replace it.
 
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