2012 odyssey 65k miles has been ticking on left hand turns. Mechanic checked out as needing axle replacement. Vehicle is fwd. I bought a cv axle half shaft and am planning on: loosen spindle, remove tire, separate ball joint, tap on axle to remove passenger side, insert new axle and reverse order rest. Any tricks on getting axle to separate from tranny? Is there a seal I need to buy that should fit against new axle? How do I know I have pushed new axle in far enough? Anything else I am forgetting? Or need to be aware of? Thanks.
Look and see if you can find a u-tube video on it.
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Yes, take the car to a mechanic. That a hell of a job on those…everything has to come off.
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You also want to remove the outer tie rod end from the steering knuckle. That way the steering knuckle can be removed from the lower ball joint an rotated out of the way.
Then remove the two bolts from the bearing bracket. The half shaft can now be removed from the transaxle.
You may need to rent this type of tool to remove the half shaft.
To install the half shaft, give it a quick push into transaxle. That should get the circlip to lock.
You shouldn’t be able to pull half shaft out of the transaxle if the circlip locks.
Tester
If you DO decide to try this yourself, I strongly urge you to get a repair manual that shows the procedure in detail. That’ll also show you what tools you’ll need so you can be prepared before starting.
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I’m a diy’er & I’ve done that job on a VW Rabbit and a Corolla. It’s not that huge of a job, at least on those vehicles. I rebuilt the CV joints and re-installed the same axle, but besides that its the same job. Very doable for an intermediate level diy’er. Don’t try it on your own if you’ve never even changed the oil before; and don’t try to figure it out as you go. It has to be done in the correct sequence, otherwise you’ll create a big mess for yourself. And there’s important fastener torque values you have to adhere to. So get the procedure documentation specifically for your make/model/year/options from a repair manual.
The main challenges I encountered
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Getting the axle nut loose & re-tightened. It’s on very tight and hard to know how tight to tighten it. I used a 25 inch breaker bar w/correct sized socket and a little math where to stand on it given my weight to get the correct torque.
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Separating the ball joint requires a special tool. Also beware that the stuff the ball joint is holding together may be under a lot of tension and may jerk loose & whack you upside the head when you loosen the ball joint. So tie all that stuff down with sturdy ropes beforehand.
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Sometimes I was able to just pry the axle out of the transmission with a big screwdriver, but the easiest way is the slide hammer tool tester shows above. Since I need that sort of tool only occasionally, I made my own, but they are not overly expensive to buy. You might be able to rent one too, at your auto parts store. Likewise with the ball joint tool.
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When you remove the axle from the transmission some fluid may start to dribble out. So be prepared with rag you can stuff into that hole to limit the flow until it is time to replace the axle. I’ve never replaced the seal there, but replacing it probably makes sense.
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Since I rebuild my axles rather than replacing them, I don’t have to deal with making sure the replacement parts have the correct dimensions. Since you are replacing, make sure to take a good deal of time to verify the replacement parts are identical to the parts you remove. Some vehicles have 5 or 6 different part numbers to choose from, depending on what options it is equipped with. If you install the wrong axle part number for your vehicle, you won’t be happy.
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This is all great advice and I seriously appreciate it. I didn’t know that slide hammer tool even existed so that will help. I have replaced shocks and wheel bearings before, is just wanted a little knudge to do this project.
Thank you all. And I will report back, hopefully with success. Gene
I wanted to report back that my odyssey no longer clicks on left hand turns. Thanks to everyone for the tidbits of advice in which I considered as critical inputs to the success.
All you tube videos only showed the driver side replace. I was working on the passenger side. So that gave me concern. Also, rockauto sold the center and half shaft as one combined part. So I worked in the blind at some points. Everything came out as clock work and I took a lot of time trying to re-insert the new axle back in. It took a lot of wiggling and repositioning but finally the last 3/4 inch slid in.
So happy being able to do this my self. Happy new year to everyone and thank you again.
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Congratulations for getting the job done yourself successfully! Happy Motoring!
Good for you for sticking with it OP. Glad you are back on the road with a click-free Odyssey 
5 posts were split to a new topic: Can’t remove inner cv axle hub