I replaced the front axles in my 2003 Honda Pilot yesterday and I am feeling it today. The Innerwebz experts said it would take a couple hours, of course they all had lifts. It took me 8. Of course the Pilot has 265,000 miles on it and the axles looked original. The driver's side went fairly well. The passenger side kicked my butt. The outer stub was rusted into the hub, the inner CV did not want to come off its snap ring. Working on jack stands left me with not enough clearance for a decent pry bar. In my efforts to find a way to get that f'n inner off I managed to pull the whole inner assembly apart. I ended up sitting on my butt with the outer cv/stub/axle shaft and half the inner cv on my hand. The other half of the inner unit was still of that f'n snap ring. I finally found an ancient drift tool (basically like this) in the bottom of my tool cart, it is maybe 18" long and tapered to a point witch let me work it in where it needed to go and finally pop the remaining inner of its snap ring.
It felt like victory until I tried to install the new axle. On reassembly the new inner came apart inside the boot and it took me a while to realize what had happened. With a little coaxing I got it back in place without having to uninstall the whole assembly.
Started this saga about 2:30pm and finished the test drive at about 10:30P. I think Fiat axles are easier to work on.
It felt like victory until I tried to install the new axle. On reassembly the new inner came apart inside the boot and it took me a while to realize what had happened. With a little coaxing I got it back in place without having to uninstall the whole assembly.
Started this saga about 2:30pm and finished the test drive at about 10:30P. I think Fiat axles are easier to work on.