I will be replacing the right half shaft on my 96 Merc Sable.
Can anyone who has done this provide their special insight to common problems or tricks not noted in the Chiltons manual.
I know the sway bar links can be tough to get off. Other than that I don’t see any likely issues.
Thanks.
First, get a Taurusable shop manual of some sort.
The hardest part will be getting that pesky 30 MM nut off of the end of the CV shaft. I hope you have a huge breaker bar or a LARGE impact wrench. Get as much rust off of the threads with a wire brush and spray the threads with some good penetrating oil a while before starting. In fact you can do that part tonight. You will also need to get the lower ball joint to come off of the spindle which can be unfun too. The strut has an area of smaller diameter that will allow you to slide the spindle up higher on the strut to allow the ball joint to go back into the strut somewhat easier. Notice that I did not say easily. I have found it helpful to lightly grease the inner bore of the spindle before trying to put the strut into the spindle. It has to be lined up very close or it won’t go in easily.
The swaybar links will be no problem if you just put a floor jack under the lower control arm to relieve any spring pressure on the link. Do that part before removing the big nut on the shaft. Use an 8MM wrench in the “bolts” to hold them still while you loosen the big nuts.
Did you say what year Sable you were working on? If so, I missed it. The early ones are just a bit different from the '96 and on Taurusables.
OH good. It’s a '96. I like the later system of the through bolt for the strut to spindle attachment. It’s hard to go wrong.
Sorry I missed that earlier.
Thanks for your reply,
I did it yesterday and this was my experience.
I had a helper which made it a whole lot easier.
Even though it is an eleven year old car the rust was minimal so getting the axle nut off was not an issue with a breaker bar. Same with the ball joint nut and it it did separated fine with a pitman arm puller.
The sway bar link nut was tough. It helped to have the helper hold one wrench while I worked the other. Two hands on each were needed.
Getting the new CV axle back in was a little tricky as well. Since the car was not on a lift, it was tricky to crawl under the car and force it in with out putting too much axial pressure on the inner CV joint. Getting the ball joint stud into the lower arm was also a bit tricky and the helper came in handy again. The helper had to hold the lower arm down as far as it would go using a pry bar while I finessed the ball joint stud in place.
While I was at it I replace the wheel bearing as it was making a bit of noise. Very little additional labor, just 3 bolts to remove it at this point. Over all it was a hard job since we used just floor jacks but we made it.
I am told an independent shop around where I live (Eastern MA)would have charged around $400 so I think it was worth it for me.