Hi All...
I just finished replacing my upper and lower ball joints & everything is/was going smooth, except I can't seem to get the axle back in the housing. It stops about 1.5 inches away from seating, The splines are clean and & everything else seems OK. It's the passenger side (long side). Any ideas how to get this in? I tried using a plastic hammer, twisting and pushing, etc... no good. The splines are fine, no damage, dirt, etc.
It's a 2007 Rubicon Dana 44 stock setup.
Jim

 

Hopefully you didn't booger up the inner axle seal when you were trying to put it in. You're right that it should just slide right in.

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X2 on this. Are you sure the shaft isn't hitting the inner seal? The long side is a little tougher to slide in since it is so long but it shouldn't take a hammer. It sounds like you might be letting the end sag and hit the inner seal.

 

Did the plastic alignment / guide rings come out with the axle shaft? If not, take a flashlight and look down inside the tube. You can fish these out with a stiff piece of wire.

They look like this...

 

X2 on the plastic guides. When you pull the shafts out sometimes they get stuck in the tubes when they fall off the shaft. Take a flashlight to the tube and see if they are stuck in there. There should be 2 in the shorter shaft and if I remember right 3 on the longer shaft

 

Thanks for the replies... I got it in by rotating the opposite wheel & tapping it in with a rubber mallet. Once it got aligned, it sort of just slipped in pretty easily with a little tap. Not sure why it is so tight. & Not sure if rotating the other wheel actually helped align anything, but it slipped in. BTW,,, all the plastic washer guides came out with the axles. thanks for the help.

 

Good to hear I just hope you didn't rip one of your seals. That's a bitch of a job