October 21, 2006
Day 2: making some progress. Last night turned frustrating. I picked up a Chilton from the local auto parts store thinking it would give me more than twenty bucks worth of guidance. Turns out, those things aren't worth a damn. BTW, you don't need to remove the brake caliper and rotor. That was my inexperience adding work. What you do need to do is un attach the steering knuckle from the ball joint which is where the progress stopped last night. There is a nut on the very bottom with a cotter pin. I removed it and proceeded to whack the bolt with my hammer but nothing would budge. Fortunately, I took a break and called my buddy that's mechanic savvy and he said he would come by today. Well, I woke up and thought I would try a different approach. I removed the two bolts on the the top side of the ball joint and that turned out to be the way to go and I saved Bruce a trip out here to BFE.
Here is the driver side half shaft minus the part that slides into the trans axle. Which will be my next story.
This is shot of the passenger side half shaft, it is longer because the trans axle is situated closer to the driver side which means there is support bracket, the one in the picture. There is a clip and a lock bolt you must remove.
The replacements.