97 Honda civic axle replacement

[3xhonda]

Hi I'm new to this forum site. I have an Accord (for me) and 2 older civics for the kids. On the 97 civic, the axle CV joint boot split and of course after a couple of weeks, we get the clickety clack when turning hard. So I look up on the internet how to replace a civic axle and there are a few You tubes that make it sound like a piece of cake to change out an axle. So I ordered a re-man'ed driver side axle to do the simple replacement. Well the problem was that this car has been on wet dirty and salty roads. So every bolt was a #%#% to get off (Wishbone assembly) and the axle itself did not want to come out of the wheel hub at all. The supposed 2 hour job turned into a sledge hammer fest....but I did get every thing apart and got the new axle in. I have two questions though.

1. I took off the lower control arm nut, but when I put it back on there was no help from You Tube on what torque the nut should be set to. I don't know if this nut should go on tight or what. If anyone knows what torque this should be set to it would be much appreciated.

2. The manual transmission side of the axle didn't fit right tight against the transmission housing. The splines are well in but the inner cv joint housing is about an eighth of an inch away from the transmission housing. On the other side the inner cv joint housing appears to touch the transmission housing. So the question is, is the axle that I put on supposed to go further into the transmission. It sure doesn't feel like it wants to go in any further. Will I lose transmission fluid?

[James Matteu]

1. Lower Ball Joint nut is the one that has a cotter pin, its called a castle nut and get 40-ft-lbs and a new cotter pin. The bolt and nut on the control are is called the pinch fork fastener and it gets 32 or 34 ft-lbs.

 

2. Its supposed to sit flush, you don't have the axle all the way in. Leaking fluid has to do with how far into the differential seal youre seated, but it is a possibility. Check the axle spline for marred teeth. Sometimes I have to straighten some of them out on a reman unit. I use a file to do this. Make sure the snap ring is present, if not use the old one.

[Humphries]

1- tq specs are 66 ft-lbs

2- there is a ring on the spline on the transmission side of the axle where you have to push it in until it clicks... use muscles and push harder until it's flush.

[3xhonda]

So the nut I'm talking about is the castle nut with the cotter pin. The guy on You tube called it the control arm nut, but I'm thinking now it was really the lower ball joint castle nut. So I'll re-torque it to 40 Ft Lbs. Great thanks.

Now that inner cv joint housing: it really does have to go flush up against the manual transmission casing? If I leave it at an 1/8 of an inch away what problems will it cause? I really don't want to go back in there. That job was way over my head. It doesn't seem to be leaking any transmission fluid.

[James Matteu]

Get under the car and use your hands to push it in. No need to take.anything apart again.

[3xhonda]

So I huffed and I puffed and I pushed and shoved and there is no way that axle is budging any further into the transmission case. There actually is no transmission oil leaking. If I leave it alone (The inner cv housing is really only about 1/16 " away from the transmission case) what will go wrong? Could it be that this re-manufactured axle is slightly different from my original? I'm trying to decide if I should just abandon my 6 hours of hard labour and take it to the mechanic.

[Humphries]

the axle is seated when the snap ring clicks in place.