After spending ten hours yesterday on what should have been a two hour maximum job I thought I would document what to do if your CV axle is stuck in the housing. First of all in order to remove the lower ball joint you have to remove the CV axle. If you cannot get the CV axle out like I couldn't. Yes I removed the nut. Yes I used a ton of penetrating oil. Yes I beat on it with a big hammer for ours. I even put a big pulley puller on it to try and push it out without it even budging. I did not have access to my torches or else heat would have helped for sure. Anyhow I ended up cutting the lower ball joint with a die grinder and pulled the whole assembly out axle and everything. I let it sit in the vise for about an hour with the penetrating oil soaking into the bearing housing where the axle goes through. Even then I beat on it for a good ten minutes as hard as I could before it came out. I have never had one stuck like this after removing probably fifty or more CV axles off of various vehicles. RUST is the devil. Needless to say at the end of the day I got it back together and now the other side needs done. It can wait!

 

Salt on roads leads to rust problems later.
Had to beat and use heat to get a hub off.
Lite coat of anti seize when putting back together.

 

I have done my front bearings 3 times, CVs once and lower ball joints more times than I can count. Knowing that my spirited driving destroys the front end components, I actually put axle grease on the splines before assembly each time. The first time I used a 10-ton hydrolic 3-jaw puller to push the spline free, but since I started greasing them, I hit it once with a a hammer and it comes right out every time.

-William