Help - Front Hub Replacement

[gaoneill]

I have a 97 Avenger. I'm in the middle of replacing a front hub. I've already removed the drive shaft nut and released the upper arm (as per service manual) which gives a lot more play to the knuckle. However, the four hub bolts are still almost impossible to remove because any tool that I use can't clear the boot of the drive shaft.

If I could just release the hub from the drive shaft, I could slide the drive shaft back and expose the hub bolts. Ive tried everything, including a 5-ton gear puller, but I can't release the hub from the drive shaft.

HELP! If you know of any tricks, or if I've missed something obvious, please let me know ASAP. The car is up on jack stands and I need it this week.

Thanks.

[mr.avenger]

so you have tried angle extensions and those kinds of things as well?...

[gaoneill]

I've tried everything that I have, and even bought a few extra tools, and still no luck. A thin-wall socket won't get on the bolt, and neither will and extrememly short swivel socket. In both cases, the socket hits the metal boot of the drive shaft which is only a few millimeters above the head of the bolt. An open end wrench doesn't work because the width of the metal on the sides of the open end are wider than the gap between the bolt head and the rolled edge of the knuckle.

The service manual shows a lot more of a gap between the bolts and the drive shaft boot than I have. The only way that I could get that much space would be to free the drive shaft splines from the hub splines, but I haven't been able to get that to budge.

I'm stumped.

[mr.avenger]

The driveshaft splines and the hub splines wil come out i have had to do the same thing on my 95 and and it takes a good amount of tugging and pulling but after about an hour it came loose my best idea to you is to just get those seperated and then have all that space to pull the hub....good luck and lemme know what happens...