I saw my driver's side is tore all the way around tonight when I was doing an oil change. The passenger side is not far behind. Pep-Boys wants $118 for both shafts with a lifetime warranty and $189 in labor to put them in. Sound right? Is it a bad job?

 

for me it should take like 30 mins to put them in, its pretty ****** easy if you have knowledge

 

Picked up the half-shafts today $118 for the pair. I called my shop and they want $60 to put both in. Should I do this myself or have them go for it? They said it may be a little more if the bolts are froze. WTH are they talking about? I will start spraying them

 

Are you talking about axles? A half shaft is another name for the intermediary shaft.

Putting axles in is pretty easy, provided you have the tools. It's pretty self explanatory, and with some searching here on HT, you'll find full instructions on how to do it.

On the other hand, $60 for both axles is a great deal. I'd do it.

 

imo i would save the 60 for tools (if you need them), diy so you can say you did and you get knowledge and experiance and save the rest of the $$

 

I just printed out the Helm's directions on doing this and plan on going for it. It mentions a special tool to seperate the lower ball joint. Will a ball joint fork work? I don't have one but will pick one up. Did anyone get away with not having one?

 

yeah using a 4lbs+ hammer.

 

only use the separator if you really HAVE to because they are well known for tearing apart tierod boots or whatever you want to call them

the best way that i could tell you is get a good sized hammer and hit the part of your steering knuckle that the the ball joint goes through and if that still doesnt work hit the top of the ball joint downward

but deffinitly try to avoid the separator

 

It's pretty easy and can be done in <45 minutes. Do it yourself and save money.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Intercooler &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Picked up the half-shafts today $118 for the pair. I called my shop and they want $60 to put both in. Should I do this myself or have them go for it? They said it may be a little more if the bolts are froze. WTH are they talking about? I will start spraying them </TD></TR></TABLE>

damn, i've been trying to get rid of mine for $50 for the pair!!!!! ARG for both of us : (

 

Well I took this job on yesterday. Let me tell you.... pay the $60.00 if someone will do both sides! No way can it be done in 30 minutes. Maybe in a perfect world but some things are stuck, etc... The driver side went okay except the shaft itself was hard to get out of the spindle and the new one didn't want to go back in the spindle without working it. I was a little quicker getting the easy stuff apart on the passenger side but ran into a huge problem. Where a brass hammer on the other side knocked the lower ball joint out I had NO LUCK with it on the passenger side. It was stuck!!! I ended up messing up the threads on the end from hitting it so many times and so hard (everyone said just a BFH). At that point the lower ball joint was pretty messed up and I figured my only hope was to use the dreaded ball joint seperator. I had heard it could/would tear the grease boot but at that point it was my only option. I whaled the **** out of the seperator until it finally popped loose. Checking it out the grease boot was tore in two places I was in salvage mode after getting the new shaft in so I just cut off a little of the bad threads and put the nut back on to make it driveable. It's all together but has to go back in for a passenger lower ball joint. I think if I took it to the shop they would have charged me the $60.00 and done the job but I think he would have also got to the point where the ball joint seperator would have to be used and also tore the boot the way I did. I had a 50/50 chance that he would have replaced it or even told me. I did the job this way and know the only thing it needs which I will have to take it to the shop for since I can't press the joint in. Maybe if I had the Honda tool the manual suggests for the lower ball joint it could have been totally prevented but I didn't have it.

 

Next time it'll be easier because now you know exactly what needs to be done, and the suspension components won't be welded together from 7 years of driving

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Intercooler &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well I took this job on yesterday. Let me tell you.... pay the $60.00 if someone will do both sides! No way can it be done in 30 minutes. Maybe in a perfect world but some things are stuck, etc... The driver side went okay except the shaft itself was hard to get out of the spindle and the new one didn't want to go back in the spindle without working it. I was a little quicker getting the easy stuff apart on the passenger side but ran into a huge problem. Where a brass hammer on the other side knocked the lower ball joint out I had NO LUCK with it on the passenger side. It was stuck!!! I ended up messing up the threads on the end from hitting it so many times and so hard (everyone said just a BFH). At that point the lower ball joint was pretty messed up and I figured my only hope was to use the dreaded ball joint seperator. I had heard it could/would tear the grease boot but at that point it was my only option. I whaled the **** out of the seperator until it finally popped loose. Checking it out the grease boot was tore in two places I was in salvage mode after getting the new shaft in so I just cut off a little of the bad threads and put the nut back on to make it driveable. It's all together but has to go back in for a passenger lower ball joint. I think if I took it to the shop they would have charged me the $60.00 and done the job but I think he would have also got to the point where the ball joint seperator would have to be used and also tore the boot the way I did. I had a 50/50 chance that he would have replaced it or even told me. I did the job this way and know the only thing it needs which I will have to take it to the shop for since I can't press the joint in. Maybe if I had the Honda tool the manual suggests for the lower ball joint it could have been totally prevented but I didn't have it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i can do both in less than 20 mins.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hatchi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

i can do both in less than 20 mins. </TD></TR></TABLE>Get a video tape with a minutes counter and tape it for me. Even with air-tools I doubt it.

 

It takes about 10mins or so just to jack up the car safely (If you include that time).

Wouldn't a jaw separator work on the lower ball joint? It was easy for the upper one.


Modified by dpkelly at 3:34 PM 10/18/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hatchi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i can do both in less than 20 mins. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Horseshit. Absolute horseshit.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=887859

 

Wish I would have seen this before it cost me a $33.00 ball joint plus labor to put it in tomorrow. Seems to work well although I don't understand fully why it does work. I noticed the fork is out in that clip.