you really dont need to pull the hub bearing off, just leave it on the spindle and remove it as one unit

to pop the lower ball joint, leave the castle nut on just loosen it halfway then whack the spindle with a BFH (big fu**ing hammer) put a jack under the control arm after it pops and jack it up to remove the tension
also you should pop both balljoints before remove the nuts all the way

 

also my 96 had bolt ons

 

Hope I'm posting this in the correct section. When I was doing this, the shaft inside the front differential came out with the CV, and now I'm not sure if it's going back in all the way. About 1/2" of the splined shaft that connects to the inner CV is sticking out of the differential. Is this correct, or should it be flush with the outside?

Thanks,
Brooks

 

no need to remove any ball joints to replace the half shaft.
thought I posted a how to on this, however I cant seem to find it.

Takes about 30 minutes in a shop with a lift and air tools to replace a half shaft, and that includes driving the truck in and out.

Remove tire, brakes, rotor, ABS, half shaft nut, and bearing (hub) assemble (3 bolts). Thats it, slide half shaft out, slide a new one in and reassemble. No need to mess around with ball joints, tie rods or any of that stuff. Obviously air tools make it faster, even without ari tools the hardest part is getting the half shaft nut off. You dont even have to take the tire off to break that free. pop off the center cap of your rims, lossen, then loosen tire lug nuts, jack it up and take the rest out. The hub assemble can be stubborn, but a chisle will break it free.

This is another case where the Chilton manual isnt the fastest or most cost effective method.

 

You say that pre-94 only used the flange, and 95-96 used the bolt on.

This is incorrect. I recently replaced the pass side on my 96 Blazer and it had the bolt on flange with 6 bolts.

 

This deffinitally helped my understand. I still need to replace both my fronts. The rubber boots both spewed grease everywhere and the boots are completely twisted around the axel.

 

Very helpful how to. I tried everything I could think of to get get the axle out without undoing the ball joints and TRE. I tried turning the wheel left, right,and I even tried taking the inner side out first but i couldnt get it. Id love to know how to do it without doing all that. I have to pull the same axle out again next weekend because advance auto sold me the wrong axle seal .

WolfPack you asked for the allen key size for the abs in your writeup I dont know if anyone pm'd you yet or not but in my 99 jimmy it's a 5mm.

 

https://blazerforum.com/forum/showth...384#post309384

There you go, a how to with pictures and everything.

There isn't much room between teh cv-axle and steering knuckle to get a socket and rachet on the hub assemble nuts. Below are the two methods I use to get those bolts out.

One is stacked combination wrenches, and the other is a wrench adapter for sockets.

 

I dont have enough clearence to get the outside out of the hole where the wheel bearing goes. when you say slide it out. what do you mean? Do you mean from the inside out. ie from the axle tube on the passenger side first? sorry i just dont understand.

I get here and get stuck

 

Your not going to fit the cv axle through the steering knuckle. Once the hub assemble is removed, you now have enough room to pull the cv-axle out of the front differential. you pull the axle out of the differential first, then out of the steering knuckle from the back side.

Push the cv-axle into the hub assemlbe opening and pull the cv-axle out of the differential, then slide the axle out of hte steering knuckle.