Accord axle replacement (pics)

[NJC]

I pulled an axle from an 1986-1989 LX Accord to replace mine. After removing my old 1988 Accord's axle find this:

BTW, the axle removal was very straightforward. Here are some pics:

Ball joint nut and lower control arm bolt removal to pull steering knuckle out of way.

Even went well enough to stop for a beer.

Old axle:

Other than a missing rubber dampening ring and smaller spline diameter, the axle is identical. 86-89 is supposed to fit.

 

[Hootbro]

Sorry but drive axles are on the few things I would not replace with a junkyard part.

 

[Familyguy]

Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Sorry but drive axles are on the few things I would not replace with a junkyard part.


Me either. I always go to raxles.com. They can be a little expensive, but the job is always done right and it's substantially cheaper than a new part. They ship you the new axle and you ship the old one back to them in the same prepaid box.

 

[-Clayton-]

Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Sorry but drive axles are on the few things I would not replace with a junkyard part.


I've had good luck with Junkyard axles, As long as the boots aren't torn they'll probably be fine. If not, Most yards give a 30 day warranty.

 

[PF52]

I've never used one, but I would be fine with a clean looking junkyard axle, at least on a beater. If its bad, I'm only out a couple hours.

 

[Familyguy]

Originally Posted By: -Clayton-
Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Sorry but drive axles are on the few things I would not replace with a junkyard part.


I've had good luck with Junkyard axles, As long as the boots aren't torn they'll probably be fine. If not, Most yards give a 30 day warranty.


30 day warranty? I also consider my time to be valuable so having to do the job a second time because of a junkyard part failing would effectively bring my real cost to what I'd pay a stealer to do it. I like working on my car, but replacing an axle twice isn't my idea of fun.

 

[daves87rs]

Nice pics.

 

[Mr Nice]

How many miles on the car ?

 

[NJC]

A former colleague offered free parts, so I looted an axle, starter, side mirror, etc and donated dollars. The car is my $250 special that I've been driving for 2yrs. 276k km's or ~171k miles.

 

[Hootbro]

Originally Posted By: Familyguy


30 day warranty? I also consider my time to be valuable so having to do the job a second time because of a junkyard part failing would effectively bring my real cost to what I'd pay a stealer to do it. I like working on my car, but replacing an axle twice isn't my idea of fun.


+1

Plus you are doing the job twice if you have to pull the part from the junker.

Also, at least with GM drive axles, the boot does not have to be torn to have a possible unusable one.

 

[NJC]

I did some research and it seems the inner joint can be easily pulled off. I swapped the inner joint from the my old axle to the new axle (see first pic to see different spline size). The inner OD and outer OD is different in the following pics, but the bearings and tri-bearing shafts were identical.

The internals were identical:

Old axle:

New axle:

The "new" axle is back in car but I need to finish attaching steering knuckle, ball joint et al.

 

[NJC]

Caliper sliding pins were dry as a bone - good time to clean and re-grease.

 

[Nayov]

I think I've done 3 CV boot jobs on the Sentra so far. Call me crazy, but I prefer to disassemble the CV joint and replace the boot rather than the axle even though the axles are very cheap.

Wow though, why did those splines get chewed up like that?

 

[cjhepburn]

Nice job, thanks for sharing.

 

[NJC]

I didn't realize these inner CV axle bearings came apart. At the very least the articulating ball/sleeve in center should be removed, cleaned and re-greased.

Needle bearings are sitting loose only held in with grease so proceed with caution in dis-assembly:

Center articulating sleeve removed:

 

[saberz]

Excellent and informative post, I love these how to's and step by step posts.

 

[artificialist]

1980s Honda halfshafts are some of the worst I have ever had to deal with.

I would have bought brand new aftermarket replacement ones, but you are doing fine.