I'm glad I came across these videos. I gotta swap a motor from an envoy into my blazer. But since the envoy just had a rebuilt trans and my blazer has the front diff starting to go, I want to pull it all at once and change it all together. Hopefully that makes it easier than going after the top trans bolts
Hi Marina , you will need to remove both front axles , so once those are removed the front diff can come out with the engine and swapped to the new engine. You can see at the end of the 3rd video the front diff attached to the engine while lifting it out. I think there are 4 bolts to remove and twist it back and forth and pull it off the oil pan and the shaft will probably come with it.
driver side cv axle can be removed more easily: undo upper ball joint, tilt assembly out everyone wants to pull cv axle shaft from bearing, but if you remove bearing hub, you can then compress the cv axle shaft enought that you can pull it out of the front diff then you can slide it back towards where the radiator was, then you can free the axle from the suspension thing and it comes right out. its only 3 18mm bolts to remove the hub bearing. i didnt have the tools to remove the lower ball joint anyways and my method was super easy. also a pry bar from up on top will make quick work of breaking the axle free from the front diff
I found that you can take the top ball joint out of the control arm and turn the axle about 20 degrees at a time and pry at it. The spline on the diff side is shorter and gives alot more clearance.
I seen someone post pics once up on a time and they removed the rads etc or at least the fan and shroud , may have removed the mounts and swung it over but dont remember for sure but you will need to remove or move the a/c compressor and alternator
