What is the procedure for replacing the passenger side half shaft on a 1990 Corsica?

Answer 1

I can't say that I have done the Passenger side half shaft, but it has to be quite similar to the 92 Driver side half shaft I did a few weeks ago. Read all these instructions BEFORE starting. I will list most detailed steps, but I assume you are smart enough to jack up the car, put in proper support (jack stands, NOT just a hydrolic jack) and pull off the wheel. Use wheel chucks or blocks of wood to chuck the rear wheels. 1. unbolt lower ball joint. This required removing the cotter key, get a new one to replace it when reassembling, they only cost a few cents. Remove the castle nut holding the ball joint in place. You will have to use an open end wrench, a socket will not fit on it. 2. disconnect the lower control arm from the knuckle assembly. Minimally this will require a ball joint separator or pickle fork. keep in mind that a pickle fork will probably rip the rubber boot on the ball joint, so you may have to replace the boot. 3. swing the rotor/knuckle/strut assembly out of the way. You may have to use pry bar to push down on the lower control arm. Also you may have to disconnect the caliper from this whole assembly to get enough room. You don't want to damage the brake hose (rubber part). 4. Use an impact wrench to remove the large nut on the end of the drive shaft, where it sticks through the center of the rotor. If you do not have an impact, you may be able to remove this nut (before disconnecting the ball joint and removing the wheel or jacking up). Caution, do not drive or move the car on this wheel with the nut removed. You will probably ruin the bearing if you do. 5. Once the nut is removed, tap the end of the shaft with a hammer, in towards the tranny. This will cause the end of the shaft to start to slide away from the knuckle assembly. Pull the assembly away and let the outer CV joint drop towards the lower control arm. 6. The inner CV joint is held in place by a detent on the end of the Shaft. This makes it a snug fit, that is a bit difficult to remove without a slide hammer with CV puller attachment. HOWEVER, I have done it on numerous occations using a hammer, prybar, pickle fork or anything else that can be used to pry against something solid. pry between the tranny and the CV joint. The CV joint will pop, then slide out of the tranny. 7. Reassemby in reverse order, make sure that the inner CV joint slides all the way in and locks. Measure the distance between the CV joint and the tranny if you need to. If you do not get this pressed in all the way and locked down properly, you may have issues later, where your transmission appears to "just die". This will leave you with no reverse, no park, no drive and cause you to repeat this procedure. 8. When reassembling the nut on the outer CV joint. Do not have weight on that wheel(but if doing without impact wrench will likely need the wheel to be installed and incontact with the ground to prevent it from turning). Make sure you pull the outer CV joint all the way up snug against the steering knuckle. Again this is easiest with an impact wrench, but can be done with manual tools.