need help with replaceing halfshaft. . .

[89daytonaowner]

i have a 89 daytona es. when i got the car i noticed the inner cv on the drivers side was thrashed. didnt have the money to replace it at the time. just drove on it.. went down hill about a week ago. so i decided to replace the entire driverside halfshaft. i got the halfshaft out, got the new shaft and im trying to put it back in.. im having a very hard time getting the hub back in place to connect everything back up... i went out and got a spring compress to take some of the pressure of off the shock to be able to move the hub back into position. however the spring compress that the autostroe gave me would not work,the strut was in the way. so now my car is sitting up on jackstands in the driveway. if anyone can give me some ideas on how to get this done, i greatly appreciate it.

[thedon809]

They are a pain in the ass i will tell you that. How did you take it apart? The way i did it was disconnect the strut from the hub, take out the bolt holding it on the ball joint and then pop it off and move away. To put it back i put in new cv, put it back on ball joint, push the hell out of it to get a screw or screwdriver in one of the strut holes, pry the hub over to get the 2 bolts and it was done. Hope that helps.

[Sinisterjw]

Did you unbolt it at the 2 bolts that go through the strut or at the ball joint? If you undid it at the 2 bolts at the strut you can usually put a jack under the control arm and jack it into place with some finesse and a pry bar...perhaps a hammer too(when you take it apart at the strut you need to get an alignment afterwards). If you undid it at the ball joint,(which is how I do it) it's easier to work with if you unbolt the outside sway bar brackets(you can leave the ones on the cross member) and swing it down. Then if it still doesn't move down easy enough to slip the ball joint into the hub assembly you can put a pry bar ontop of the control arm but under the axle and use the body to pry against and push the arm down. Slimmer pry bars help here since there's not lot of space between the axle and the control arm. Good luck.

[thinkofhairy]

Disconnect the swaybar at control arms.

4 bolts and nuts that will make you life a LOT easier when you install the half shafts.

[NAJ]

Do not remove the 2 bolts that go thru the strut, they are the adjustment for camber, if you move them you will need a wheel alignment.

[89daytonaowner]

the way i did it was by unbolting the ball joint. we pryed apart to free up the hub.when we took the halfshaft out we shifted the hub to one side to get the shaft out.when we did that the hub shifted down due to the pressure of the shock so now the problem is getting it up high enough to put the pin back in.the new halfshaft is in already in the tranny and through the hub. spring compress is my guess... but im far from any type of mechanic. lol

[dragbaron]

The sway bar is your problem, do like others said and remove the four 13mm bolts (two on each side of the car)that connect it to the lower control arm. Then pry down on the lower control arm and install the "hub". When the weight of the car is off the front suspension, the strut assembly is extended as far as it's going to go. Disconnecting the steering knucle from the lower ball joint won't make it drop down, it will make the lower control arm go up(because of the sway bar's tension on it).