Expert: Tim hagan - 3/31/2009

Question
I'm replacing right-front wheel bearing and diff seal on my 01 gmc suburban.  bearing assembly came out ok but I cant figure out how to remove the axle/cv from the differential.  it has 6 bolts in a flange on the output shaft of the diff, no other obvious hardware to remove.  do the control arms or other steering/suspension parts need to be removed to pull the axle?  also, what type of tools and pitfalls are involved?

Answer
should be able to remove the axle by removing the axle shafts, front drive shaft and the mounting bolts, after that it may get ugly, as the case needs to be split in half and is sometimes difficult to do.  Several special tools are needed and you must know torque specs and pre-load specs for the pinion flange.