Now, do you mean the shaft out of the joint or the axle shaft out of the diff? A quick yank will get the axle shaft out of the diff, but not the shaft out of the inner CV joint (unlike the outer CV joint). Like Kevin said, you must remove the balls from the joint, pull the cage out and you will find a cir-clip (snap-ring) on the other side of the cage. Remove the snap-ring to remove the cage and then install the new boot. As I'm sure you know, everything must be cleaned and then reassembled with liberal amounts of grease.

Are you replacing the outer CV boot too? May as well while you've got the knuckle off. I used a drift to knock the outer joint off the shaft. I found getting the c-clip to go back in the outer joint during reassembly a real pain. A dead blow hammer whack to the end of the outer shaft worked though. Recently I saw a someone use a small hose clamp to compress the c-clip while pushing the outer joint on to the shaft, like a piston ring compressor. Neat idea.

I hate doing CV joints. Messy business <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />