Good plan on waiting for the ABS sensor, she looks good and clean though in that hube bore! I must have used 2 cans of brake cleaner on this job and tons of wire brushes lol!

Hey a little fun mod you can do while she's in the air, pull off those silly fender liner square "covers" near the 3 o'clock position on the wheel well, it opens up a nice hole and I theorize it as a free "3.0 brake cooling" mod :)

Thank you much, Ricky, for the tip on combining the two AZ axle/hub pullers. I think that would certainly do the trick. I also happen to have new Lmfrdr ball joints and thrust arms bushings that I hope to go ahead and change out while I'm at it. But that depends how well the rest of the CV shaft/bearing goes. I really need to have this done by mid next week. I also work a part-time second job (braces and college).

The weekend might be a marathon!

And speaking of ball joints.... quick question; are the two torx bolts that mounts the ball joint on the knuckle really reverse threaded i.e rightly loosey?

I didn't replace those myself, my mechanic did when he did my thrust arms and control arms up front a while back. So I don't know if its reverse thread, although I seriously doubt it would be!

:pullhair:This is one of these jobs without the right tools.

I used a Harbor Freight Rotary Hammer with a bull point chisel to push my axle out of my hub. Worked great. Took 3 minutes.

This axle is laughing at my 3lb sledge. Must be some serious rust despite a good 1/2 can of WD-40. I thought the Autozone hub puller would do the trick but no dice, even with a breaker bar. Oh and the caliper retaining screw is rusted and stripped so I'll be drilling that out. I can hear my old man laughing "son, you just can't work on foreign cars". Ugh

And....SUCCESS

Tip of the day; use a ball-peen hammer instead of a drift. Place the rounded end on the shaft and pound away with the 3 lb sledge. 8 wacks did the trick.

Dad was a Ford man 100% but he'd like my X5.

AFAIK, the bolts should NOT be loc-tited if torqued to spec.

My indy must have used at at some point...it was semi-stripped when I had to remove them. To be safe and sound, I ended up helicoil the calipers bolt threads and I did not use loctite when I put them back on

Yesterday and today I was able to make some notable progress.

1). Took the knuckle to have the old bearing pressed out/new Timken bearing pressed in. Dropped it off on my lunch break and picked it up on my way home from work. The bearing cost $47 from Autozone and the service was $58. Not bad I thought.

2). Installed the new EMPI CV axle I've had. Went in very smoothly.

3). I think I will go ahead and take my thrust arm to have the bushing replaced. I also have new ball joints. I will do the driver's side afterwards. Why not since I have everything accessible and I'm on a roll (knock on wood).

I do notice I have less than a 1/8-inch gap from where the shaft housing meets the neck of the transmission inlet. I have a nice assortment of "kiss marks" from my crow bar and hammer.

Have I cleared the clip?

I did put bearing grease on the splines and clip.