I just swapped ifs diffs today. Loosen, don't remove, but loosen way up your diff and let it hang down..heheheh... anyway, let it hang down toward the end you are working on. The CV will match it's droop until the angle has changed on the CV such that you can wiggle it out.

There are 2 bolts holding up the diff toward the back. Take one all the way out and loosen the other... that should work. good luck.

that's why you might have to undo Lower balljoint, pull out knuckle, get your cv axle out. And once you have room to move then you can pound the 6 studs out.

Replacing those studs with bolts is for you future cv axle change easier...but not when studs are still there...

btw, you don't need to take off the disc, just spin out all your bearings, outer race, nuts & stuff to free up your axle end.

just undo the Lower bJ with a BJ puller, super easy! only 1 big nut/cottonpine to remove!

Well, thanks everyone! I tried and still couldn't get the IFS/CV axle out. I've got to get a BJ <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />...puller...a ball joint puller that is. What I'll probably try tomorrow is just using a reciprocating saw and just cut enough studs to let the CV axle drop. It will probably have enough room if I cut just one or two studs. Then I can pop the stub axle out (A BIG <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />THANK YOU <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> to OOPS) and hammer out the rest of the studs and replace them with bolts. Should go a lot faster on the other side. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow. Thanks again everyone <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Although it is much easier to do if you break the bottom BJ loose it is not necessary. Erik B (mod on T-100 BB) wheeled IFS for many years and he could change a half shaft without even jacking it up. He would pull the hub cap, take the snap ring off, take the six nuts of (he did not replace the press in bolts) and with a pry bar and wiggling it around it would be out. Then he would do the same thing to put it back in. I watched him do it in less that a half hour one day when we were wheeling. It may have been so easy because he had a 4" Pro Crap lift on his rig.

You do not need a BJ puller if you have two good size hammers. This is a trick a Toyota Tech (now the foreman) taught me. Take the cotter pin out, loosen the nut but do not take it off, hold one hammer tight against the place where the BJ shaft goes through the lower control arm, strike the opposite side of the control arm sharply and it will break loose. You may have to hit it a few times to get it to break loose and do not be afraid to hit it hard you will not hurt anything. Here is a picture of the method being used on a TRE.

If you get a puller do not use a ôpickle forkö they will break them loose but most of the time will tear the boot in the process. Then you have to change the BJ and go get it aligned.

my experience on an 88 IFS: If its stock, 'easiest' is to drop the third member. Make sure you have a friend around to help with this. Detach the drive shaft, remove the three hanger bolts, remove the dozen CV axle bolts, let the whole differential drop out. When its out, put a nut on the end of each of three adjacent bolts, drive them out, and use a 1/2" drill to enlarge the holes a little. This will facilitate future removal, installs for CV axles. You'll probably have to remove the shock bolt as well. To me, this was the easiest and most str8 forward way to get the CV out, if the three bolts are not already drilled out of the tulip flanges. Just my two-cents...

When I did mine last summer I succeeded in getting the second on e out without pullin' the third or any of the other crap. It just took a little persuasion and a jack to move the A-arms around. However, pullin the bottom ball joint ain't hard at all and makes the whole job a hell of a lot easier. Go to Harbor Freight and get one of their cheap ball joint pullers, not sure of the size off hand but it worked fine for me <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I spent more than an hour at Harbor tool & freight. No one there knew what a ball joint puller was. Is this what you are talking about?


This is the only thing they had. I can't for the life of me figure out how that might work. Help getting desperate

Thanks again! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Rather than use a hammer, there's an alternate way to get those press-fit studs out....
place a 17mm socket over the backside of the stud. Now place a c-clamp w/ one end over the socket, and the other other the stud end, and crank it down. It will be tight and kind of break loose all at once, and push the "head" end into the socket, from tehre you can psh it out by hand.

Unf there isn't quite enough room to do this w/ the CVs in place.

Anyone??

When I put the IFS lift on my rig I used the two-hammer method, worked like a charm. I have one of those tools, I use it to change u-joints. I have no idea on how it would be used to change BJ's. The tool that I saw for pressing out BJ's looked like a TRE puller only bigger.