Ram 1500 Front Axle Shaft Removal 

Big props for not editing the video behind the scenes and instead actually showing what I giant pain in the butt these things are on Dodge.

11 hours. Thats how much time I spent today trying to removal this same axel and it’s still stuck. I used every tool you did, plus a slide hammer. Will not budge. Never been more defeated working on a vehicle, ever. Worse part is I pulled the joint apart, so I can’t get the hub back on. I can get it off and can’t get other parts on. 🤬

Nice, thanks for the video. I have been looking one for those exactly this. The one thing I did when removing the steering knuckle was to reconnect the upper ball joint nut just a couple of threads so the knuckle dont fall down when undoing the lower ball joint. This works out good when working alone and you are working on the ground without a hoist.

Great job showing and telling, keep up the good work. I am fixing to start on my 2008 and do that what your doing be a big job for me I never did it before. But I can do it I jack of all things well wish me luck and you have a good one thanks for learning me see you next time see ya bye.

Great job!…Good to learn from a mechanic who’s living is fixing vehicles.

I’ve found that a no12 crescent wrench slid on the intermediate shaft and struck with mini sledgehammer works wonders gives you the much needed surface area contact to get the cv axle past the clip

Thanks for your help, I was able to fit it in with just the upper ball and tie rod disconnected. However other videos and information lead me to believe it was possible to do without removing any of these things, but not possible.

This is exactly the crap i was up against last weekend with my Ram. The drivers side was pretty easy. Popped out with no troubles. The passenger side I couldn't get out. I'm working on jack stands so i can't get very good leverage to beat on it so I ended up giving up after beating on it for 2 hours. I ended up just putting it back together. I did at least install a new hub bearing because it was totally shot. I guess I'll try again this coming weekend. Oh and a protip for anyone doing this - be careful with that lower ball joint boot. With all the messing around trying to get the stupid axle out I must of pinched or pryed on the ballpoint and tore the boot. Well crap now I need a new lower ballpoint and in these its easier to replace the whole control arm. Well it was about time for new everything anyway with 155k miles so guess whose getting new upper and lower ball joints, link kits, and tie rod ends??? This guy!! Guess who has to install all this crap - this guy! Not crazy about it because there goes my whole weekend since I dont have a lift. In the dealership with the lift I'd have everything done in 2 hours, 3 max. Oh yeah I used to be a Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealership tech for years then later a service writer when I got tired of my hands always being cracked and oily no matter how hard I tried to clean them. Yall dont dis this dude because he doesn't do everything by the book or the way you'd do it. I've seen some true horror shit in my day. Vehicles sent out with no oil in the engine, vehicles falling off of lifts from 6 ft up, technicians smoking pot on test drives, air bags getting accidentally blown up, having to work on cars that had human flesh still stuck to the suspension that had been involved in pedestrian vs car accidents. Just some real shit show stuff that happens behind the scenes that customers often never find out about. I'm in the RV industry now and so much happier lol.

I feel lucky, today I gave it a spray of Gumout's fluid film then after a few taps with an 8lb hammer it came off. The driver's side was harder because the stub shaft was seized to the CV shaft so I had to replace that as well. Thanks for the video

Dam loved that air chisel move with a cut tip on it.

Great video I'm going thru the same thing right now

Great vid, very informative. Keep up the good work

Thanks a lot. I wasn't sure how hard I could beat on this thing without doing damage to the differential extension housing. Turns out you pry hard and hit hard. Cheers

I literally died twice while watching this video 🤣

I have a good question: after replacing the axle shaft, do I need to do a wheel alignment? no one pays attention to this issue!!! 🤔

In my case, remove the intermediate shaft first, with the CV axle together, then WD40 fill in and knock it, this easy to separate them...

Could ratchet strap the axle outward to put some pull pressure on it while hammering

I took off the upper control bolt and the tie rod bolt and the brake caliper bold on the body and my drive axle came out. I didnt have to remove the lower ball joint or the caliper .And dont hit anything against the case at all. Why risk cracking it?

Maybe fitting a jack in there somehow? Just an idea.

What Safety Glasses???????

I used a 2 foot piece of train track to ram mine off worked great.

Excellent video. Going to give this a try since my boot is torn and all of the grease has slung out. As far as the armchair mechanics criticizing leaving the brake caliper hang, pffftt.. who of us has not done that. LOL. Overall great video and description of the work in progress.

What if shaft comes out too

you aren't supposed to use that fork like that at all dude, it's for leverage not for hammering. lmaooooo

eye protection please

I had a mechanic replace mine on the passenger side recently. noticed somehow he knocked the dust sheild loose and it's just " floating". I wasn't sure if it was a sign he did something wrong or not. He did say he had a terrible time getting it off.I thought possibly he did something wrong because I can see the short section of shaft as seen in this video. What holds the dust sheild on from the factory??

What happened to the c clip and how come you didn't put one back on to re install the new cv axle? Is it inside the cv axle?

I assume this is his first year as a mechanic

I wouldve put some lugnuts on first then used my bar to torque the axle nut

Pas si facile ?

Watched this for fun because I did axles on a friends Ram and wanted to see if there were different approaches. Jesus Christ this guy made my head hurt. I don’t have a hoist, and I didn’t work this hard. Step 1, remove calliper and rotor. 2, remove 3 bolts behind hub/bearing and install slightly longer ones loosely. 3, hammer the bolts to remove hub/bearing. 4, take Cv apart at the intermediate shaft. 5, youse air gamer and punch through plug in the middle of the intermediate shaft while pulling on it with other hand and voila, separated. 6, install new parts…..Guy takes the knuckle off🤦‍♂️

Why put brakes on(you mention putting them on yesterday) just to remove them again when doing the axle ? You did not know you were changing it ? Hammering on the CV joint to get the ring to snap in clearly shows something isn't aligned properly or dented/damaged. Oh well next guy changing it will have to deal with it I guess...

Mine will not come out no matter how hard i try..... 03 Ram 1500.

Look how damaged the housing is after he pulled it off

I just did this yesterday and mine was sized. What a bitch getting it off. I got it off but the stub shaft , bearing and seal came out which really sucks. Have to order the whole assembly. 😡

I see the mopar patch on this guys shoulder indicating he works for a dealership, no wonder so many cars go back to the dealership when guys like him work there. I knew when he started using the "special cv axle" tool in a way it wasn't designed for that we in for a real treat, also the fact he didn't take the caliper off right away and then letting the caliper hang off the brake hose (stressing said hose) was another great contribution for the team. Then the air chisel debacle, then the torquing of the axle nut with the prybar chafing the wheel studs....hey but at least he used a torque wrench! He could have put a pry bar in the rotor fin, or had a member of the team step on the brakes for torquing that axle nut. I get it that we've all had shit happen like in this video, but with the Mopar Patch on the shoulder with a fully equipped shop I expect better.

This is the reason I never go to the stealership for service… They don’t hire the brightest mechanics.

That is not how you use that tool. It's supposed to be two pieces, one is used if the space is too great from where the axle is mounted and the other is a wedge like a pickle fork. You basically use them in combination just like a pickle separates a ball joint.

Geeeeeeez fella 🤣😅😂

My axle is the same way these cursed dodges

I can just pull this right from my differential

Not very good practices. Never just leave caliper hanging and don't use screwdriver on connectors. Go back and redo your courses. Nuff said

Caliper hangs without support, brake rotor clanks on the ground, pounding the axle shaft risking thread damage. That’s why I do my own work.

nice hanging break hose

im surprised this guy actualy recorded all his difrant attemps and showed how having the correct tools and not having the correct tools looks like, he improviised and got it done but in my opinion way to many heavy hamer hits and i would not want him doing my trucks axels this way. it makesme see that i would do a better gentler job with mine on my own..pluss he took everything apart to do it , i saw a video showing the same job done without removing all the stuff he did and actualy removing the cv axels from the other side before removing it from wheel side and then re installing from wheel side fisrt then inserting into axel dif second..

You left the caliper hanging by the hose. The red lock tab on the abs line should be lifted before you jam a screw driver into the harness. You shouldn’t make repair videos, if you do NOT know what you’re doing.

Thanks very much. God bless you, and Jesus is the Way to God!

Very bad mechanic. No 1 why do brakes first, 2nd just hang caliper like that is very bad. Wouldn't let my truck be worked on there.

11 hours. Thats how much time I spent today trying to removal this same axel and it’s still stuck. I used every tool you did, plus a slide hammer. Will not budge. Never been more defeated working on a vehicle, ever. Worse part is I pulled the joint apart, so I can’t get the hub back on. I can get it off and can’t get other parts on. 🤬