Dude where you at in Vegas? I'm in mountains edge area. No worries, are you doing the driver side axle? What you do is line up the axle straight level from the cvt. Assuming you have carefully mated it into the splines inside the cvt --you can use a wire or string to hang the middle part to help you--then with a piece of wood and hammer tap the axles end into the cvt. Not too hard but hard enough to get it in. Watch the distance of the cv housing to the cvt. It has to be very close. It should click in somewhat. Once in, pull the axle to make sure the clip is really locked in. When removing the axle...I used a small pry bar to remove it out of the cvt. Easy. Wedging the cv housing.

 

I'm north central... Aliante area.
It's the passenger side. I've been holding it straight like you said and hitting it w/ a rubber mallet but haven't gotten anywhere. It's a little difficult to hold with the stiff boots, but if that's the right idea I'll keep at it.

Since it is the passenger side, per the online shop manual, I separated it at the side shaft... the side shaft is still on the car between that support bracket and the transaxle. The 2WD instructions say to remove the support first but the AWD says to leave the support and pull this out of the short shaft.

Lots of talk about bearings on here... with the axle out of the hub, how freely should the hub be spinning by hand?

 

I use a 3 lb sledge and a piece of wood. Pound it harder than what you get from a rubber mallet.

 

I remember from one of turbizzy's posts that right side axle on an AWD has a special trick. I don't remember what exactly but it was in one of the threads about replacing the axle seal.

 

Thanks, Z., I didn't see any of turbizzy's regarding the axle but might have missed it.

Well, I did get it in and nitely's tip on using a rope to hold it up got me there... I did that just to free up one of my hands a little and what that did was hold it straighter! When I held it just with my hand I held it at the best angle for banging on which I noticed later was not perfectly straight.

So straight is the secret. I pushed it in by hand to the clip, that way I knew the splines were lined up and I wasn't forcing anything.
Then when it hit the clip and stopped, holding it perfectly straight I held it tight and 2 wacks with a rubber mallet later, that puppy was in.

That's all it took. 30 minutes after that the tire was on and I was having a cup of coffee.

Thanks!

 

And I'll bet that was one damn fine tasting cuppa!!

 

Did you ubolt strut from knuckle or did you undo lower ball joint? I would prefer unbolting strut to avoid ball joint boot damage.
Thanks?

 

As you tackle the job you will see that you need to remove the ball joint from the knuckle to swing out the axle. Never use a pickel fork.... better yet loosen or remove the LCA 4 fasteners so you can drop it down without hurting the ball joint boot. Longer route but safer for the boot.