hey, i got a car in a trade recently. 88 civic hatch with b16 motor and trans. this is my 4th ef hatch with b series so im not a newbie to these swaps/efs. The left axle boot was loose and spraying grease all over so i decided to change it since i had an extra axle laying around. i got it all apart and go to put it back together and it seems like the axle is too long. i cant get the bottom ball joint back in no matter what i do.

i tried to put the bottom ball joint first then the top, no go.
i tried a new axle from autozone. no go
i pulled the knuckle off my b series crx. no go
i pulled upper control arm from my b crx. no go
i measured the length of the lower control arm. its the same length as my crx. no go
i made sure the dust cap was off, the axles both go into half shaft all the way, i cant figure this out. wasted 3 hours today tryin all different combos and got nothing. The leaky axle is in the trash and gone already so im pretty much screwed!! please help!

If i have the top ball joint connected to the knuckle, axle in with the axle nut tightened all the way, and the tie rod end conncted to the knuckle and the bottom balljoint is still about half inch away from the hole in the lower control arm and cant get it any closer because the axle holds it away.

 

Maybe the axle is not seated in the tranny the entire way? Im sure youve already checked this. You said that the axle is the same length as your B-series CRX. Thats the only thing I can think of that you didnt state. Good Luck with it though...

 

this is the left side axle which goes into the half shaft...its flush against the half shaft so its in there all the way, so i dunno what the problem is...its really bugging the **** outta me! i need to get this car back together!

ill take some pice next time i go down there to my garage.

 

maybe the half shaft is longer than it should be for some odd reason...ill pull it off and measure it up against one i have laying around that i know worked...That and the lower control arm is the only things i didnt change. but i measure the lower control arm. so half shaft is the last piece to check on.

anymore ideas let me know

 

well i figured it out, i dunno why i didnt check this before i posted something but for the hell of it ill explain it anyway incase anyone else ever has this problem...

The half shaft was a tad longer which caused the axle to stick out too far to let the knuckle fit on. This is crazy, the reason i didnt check it is because i thought all half shafts should be the same lengths. weird...anyway, im posting a pic so you guys can see this.

 

probably had the Y1 midshaft. what is the number on it? did you replace it with the sk7 midshaft? I believe that is the part number. correct me if I'm wrong

 

ys1 half shaft is dif than a regular halfshaft?