I am having problems removing the cv jionts. I have followed the book
and they will not " just pop out" with a pry bar. I have tried wedges and prybars. does anyone have any suggestions.

It may just take more brutality.
You dont say if its an automatic or manual tranny. Mine is a 92, with the automatic tranny. I used a 30" long bar called a 'tire spoon', used for changing tires on 18 wheelers. I had the car raised high enough to put the flattened of that spoon in the crevice where the passengers side axle stuck out of the tranny. I cant recall if I hit the end of that bar with a sledge hammer or a lead hammer. It came out - with no damage.
The drivers side axle shaft is hard because the undercarriage was in the way. I think you may have to support the engine, remove the undercarriabe, to get the prybar onto the drivers side axle. I was taking the entire transmission out, already had the engine out - so I left the axle shaft sticking out of the transmission until I had it sitting on a low workbench. There I was able to use a normal carpenters pry bar - and drive it into the space with a sledge hammer. Again, it came out with no damage. The amount of force it took was a little scary.


I had a good bit of trouble getting the outer end of the driveaxle out of the hub. On the drivers side it was rusted - and took some hammering to free it.

Some Ford half shafts are recommended to be removed with a slide hammer attached to a special adapter that gets behind the cvj against the trans. I looked at one at Auto Zone but decided not to borrow it since the manual said it wasn't necessary. I've only done a few of these, but I too was surprised how hard I had to pry on it against the trans, which I really didn't like, to get it to come out. I used a 2ft+ mechanics pry bar and found that I had to get in a roomy enough position so I could really pull on it. Good luck.

I think I used a big hammer on mine.