Replaces
Part Details
TRQ CV (constant velocity) drive axles are manufactured using premium raw materials designed to restore original performance. TRQ CV drive axles are new, so there is no core charge with your TRQ purchase. TRQ-designed drive axles utilize neoprene boots, moly grease, stainless steel clamps, and heat-treated ball tracks to ensure extended service life. Each TRQ axle is application-specific so each spline and thread will mate properly for a seamless fit. All products are fit and road-tested in our Massachusetts R&D facility to ensure we deliver on our promise of Trusted Reliable Quality.
Product Features
CV axles are designed to transmit the power from your vehicle's drivetrain to the wheels while being able to flex and pivot to the demands of the steering and suspension systems. If your vehicle is making clicking noises at lower speeds or when making turns, it may be time to replace your CV axles with our 100% brand new assemblies.
Item Condition:
New
Attention California Customers:
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead and Lead Compounds, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.
Lifetime Warranty
This item is backed by our limited lifetime warranty. In the event that this item should fail due to manufacturing defects during intended use, we will replace the part free of charge. This warranty covers the cost of the part only.
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Created on:
Tools used
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Hi. I'm Mike Green; I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20 plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this, to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you, and enjoy the video.
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the front drive axle on this '04 Dodge Ram, same as most of these '02 to '08 generation vehicles. Pretty easy, you need a 22 millimeter or 7/8 socket and lug wrench or, I'm sorry, a lug wrench or a socket and ratchet. You'll also need a 35 millimeter socket with an air impact wrench or a large breaker bar and pipe. First, you want to remove your wheel, if you're just using hand tools start with the vehicle on the ground, loosen lug nuts first, then raise it, secure it with jack stands and then remove the wheel. I've got air tools; I'm going to use them. These are either 7/8 or 22 millimeter. Both will work. So you'll notice here that the brakes are apart. You do not have to take the breaks apart. I was just filming this while I was doing a few different repairs. This only involves lifting up the truck, taking the wheel off and then removing and replacing the axle. You'll also notice that I don't actually replace the axle with a new one, because it wasn't bad on this vehicle, I was just doing the video so you can see how it's done. I'm going to take the hub nut off, and I've got a 35-millimeter impact wrench and socket. I've your using hand tools, you're going to have to lift up, take the lug nuts off, take the center cap off, put the wheel back on, and the lug nuts back on, then use your breaker bar and pipe. A little more difficult, a little more involved, but that's how you do it. I'll just get to it and use my impact wrench here. Okay, I hit it and it moved so it's free.
Now, what you want to do is get a pry bar and then go way up like that, and pull your axle right off like that. Hammer, and your axle is out. So now we're just going to take our axle, put it right up around here, feed it into the hub, turn it a little bit so we know we're matching it with the hub. Push it right in. I'm going to take my hub nut and using my impact wrench, just to get it on there, not really to tighten it all the way up yet. Now, I'm going to grab hold of my CV joint on the inside, pull it. So you go up on the top, pull your joint in as much as you can. Get it going onto the axle, and then push all the way on. Make sure it gets on there. So you're axle is back in. Put your wheel back up on and put the lug nuts on there without the center cap. Just put them on by hand first, and then I'm just going to tighten them up a little bit with my impact wrench, preliminarily. So your hub nut 185 foot pounds, my poor torque wrench only goes up to 150. So there's 150, 185. Now, I'll raise the vehicle back up, take the lug nuts off, put the center cap back on, and preliminarily tighten up the lug nuts. Let the vehicle back down and torque the lug nuts to 120 foot-pounds, using a star pattern.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll free 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
Tools used
Okay, friends, one of the first things we need to do is safely raise and support the vehicle. We're going to remove all of our lug nuts, and take the wheel off. Now that we have the wheel off, we have a nice, clear view of our caliper. We need to remove our two mounting bolts here, and then we're going to hang the caliper out of the way on something such as maybe a bungee cord. Grab that caliper. Now we'll just hang it out of the way, like I said.
Get the rotor off of here. Now let's go ahead and remove our axle nut here. Let's spray this area, and give the axle a couple bonks to break it free. Now it's going to be time to get our ABS wire disconnected. If you follow it up to the wheel well, you can see the little white tab. Let's go ahead and pull that out of there. Now, looking at it, you can see a red tab. That's a lock. Let's go ahead and pull up on that lock, and then press in on this black piece, so we can release this. I always like to take a peek, make sure everything looks good. Now let's grab our ABS wire, and we're going to start taking it down to the knuckle. Okay. Wrap this up so it can't get damaged.
Now it's going to be time to remove our outer tie rod end from the knuckle. Let's go ahead and remove our locking clip here. Now let's give the knuckle a couple loving bonks until this breaks free. There we are. Set that aside. Let's remove our upper ball joint nut from the knuckle. Start that nut back on there a couple good threads. Now we're going to give this a couple loving bonks to separate the two. Remove our lower ball joint nut from the knuckle. Put that back on just a couple threads. Now we're going to give this a couple loving bonks to break it free as well.
Okay. So now we're just going to kind of pull this out and then down. We need to remove the axle from the knuckle at the same time as the lower ball joint. Now we need to get the axle out of our front differential. You're going to notice it's stuck in there because it has a locking clip. So if you just give it a couple loving bonks, you should be able to break it free. There it is, friends.
So, now that we have our axle assembly out of here, you might notice that it looks different than the new axle assembly. The reason for that is because this shaft right here is actually a pressed-in shaft. So, essentially, you would just kind of take this, you'd slide it in there, bonk it in, and then you have this same exact axle here. The problem is that these get stuck inside there, so it's best to just go ahead and replace this unit at the same time.
Okay, so, it's time to prep our brand new axle here. And what I mean by that is we're just going to take a little bit of lubricant, we're going to come inside these threaded areas. That's going to help keep the moisture away. Go ahead and put a bunch in there. That feels good, inside all those splines. Beautiful.
Now we're going to take our insert piece here, and you're going to notice that one side is shorter, the shanked area, and it also has a little rubber, okay? This is a gasket, and it's supposed to help keep moisture out, so that's going to go up against the axle. Put it in just like this. I've got this on a nice piece of wood so it can't be damaged, and I'm going to use a rubber mallet, and we're just going to bonk this in till it locks in. There it is right there. Give it a nice tug, make sure it's completely secured all the way around, nice and level.
So, before we go ahead and put the axle in there, something that's important to think about is your seal right there. It's always a great idea to go ahead and replace it. For the purpose of this video, we're not necessarily going to do that. So, of course, I'm just going to inspect it, make sure it's not torn or worn in any way. This one looks decent, so let's go ahead and put this up in there. Carefully slide it in.
You should feel it want to line up with the splines inside the front differential. There it is. Okay. So that just went in a little bit. Just going to give it a couple loving bonks here with my rubber mallet. Give it a nice tug. It's definitely locked in. Let's move along.
Next, let's use a tiny bit of copper never-seize and go along the splines of the axle, but beware of the actual threaded area. Now it's going to be time to get our knuckle back up on here. We're going to go over the axle, start sliding the splines into this area here, and then of course, we need to be doing the lower ball joint at the same time. So just kind of line up the two so they are both trying to go at the same time. There it is.
Now we're just going to take our lower ball joint nut and start that in there. Let's go ahead and get that ball joint nut on there. All right. Now let's snug that up. Now it's going to be time to do the upper ball joint. Let's go ahead and start that in. What you might notice is you have a hard time pulling down. Just use a nice pry bar for leverage. There we are. Start that nut on there. Now let's go ahead and torque this upper ball joint nut to 40 foot-pounds. Let's torque the lower ball joint nut to 38 foot-pounds. Now, the next thing we want to do is make sure that our hub surface is nice and clean, and then give it a nice coating of copper never-seize. You want to make sure that the hub surface on the backside of your rotor is clean as well, so you have a smooth surface to mount up here.
Let's go ahead and get this rotor on. Perfect. Now we're going to grab the caliper. We'll start in the bolts, and then we'll torque those to manufacturer specifications. All right. Let's go ahead and get the caliper on here. Let's torque these to 130 foot-pounds. Let's get our tie rod back on here now. Let's torque this to 45 foot-pounds. Now we want to make sure that our slot on the nut lines up with the corresponding hole in the tie rod end stud. If it doesn't, just continue tightening until the next slot does. Put in our locking cotter pin. Peen it over. There we are. Now it's time to re-secure our ABS wire here. Just going to look underneath the control arm. You can feel the slots. Slide that one up in there. There it is. Connect in our wire, give it a nice click, a nice tug. Yeah, see, it comes right apart. Click it in there, a tug, lock it in. Push this back through. Make sure your ABS wire isn't going to get caught anywhere. This looks good.
We're going to put on our axle nut and then we'll bottom it out, and then we'll torque it to 185 foot-pounds. It's going to be time to torque the axle nut. To do that, I like to put a nice bar across the studs, nice and flat as can be. That's going to prevent this from turning. Now let's torque it to 185 foot-pounds. Now let's clean down the mess on our differential. Let's get our wheel back on here. Start all your lug nuts on there, and torque them to 130 foot-pounds.
Okay, friends, so now, all you want to do is go ahead and pump up those brakes so they're nice and firm, check your brake fluid, and of course, get it down to your local alignment shop.
Tools used
Okay, friends. To get started on this job, the first thing we need to do is safely raise and support the vehicle with the suspension hanging. Remove all five of your lug nuts and take the wheel off. Now that we have the wheel off, we have a nice, clear view of our caliper. Let's remove the two caliper bracket mounting bolts. Remove your caliper. Now we're gonna set it aside so it's not putting any pressure on our flex hose. Get the rotor off of here. Time to separate our outer tie rod end from our knuckle. If you have a cotter pin, just go ahead and get it out of there, and then we're gonna remove the nut. Separate the tie rod from the knuckle. Now let's separate the upper ball joint from the knuckle up here by removing this nut. Put that nut on just a couple threads. Give this a couple loving bonks till it separates. Pull down. Remove your nut. There it is. ...your axle nut. Now it's gonna be time to separate the axle from the wheel bearing. Use a nice punch right here. Working on the lower ball joint, if you have a cotter pin, go ahead and get that out of the way. Let's remove the lower ball joint nut. Just keep in mind that there's gonna be nothing holding the knuckle in. Start this nut on a couple threads for safety. Now we'll continue on with our hammer. We're gonna give this a couple loving bonks to break it free. Lift up on your knuckle. Remove the nut.
At this point, what we're gonna need to do is remove the knuckle. You have to keep in mind that the axle is still going through the bearing, and the lower ball joint's going through the knuckle, so just kind of maneuver it in a such way that it will come right out. Now, the next thing we wanna talk about is whether you're replacing the axle separately, or the axle with the intermediate shaft, which is more than likely what you're gonna have to do. Theoretically, what you could try to do at this point is to tap on the axle and drive it away from the vehicle, and hopefully, it'll separate from the intermediate shaft. Typically it doesn't, and you have to replace the intermediate shaft at the same time, which is what we're doing in our video today.
Let's go ahead and spray down the area. Now we're gonna remove our mounting bolts that hold this plate to the differential itself. The second bolt is gonna be directly diagonal from it. The next thing we need to do is separate this sealed area from the differential. So, just try to grab a little corner. Put a couple loving bonks. Try to grab anywhere you can. Okay. There we are. Let's go ahead and pull this out of here. There it is, friends. The next thing we need to do is clean up this area along here where the seal's gonna ride. Use a nice razor blade, and just scrape it right off. That's looking pretty good. Now looking inside of this area, you can see this little cone. We kinda wanna grab onto that. This is your bearing race. We'll pull it right out of there, and we're gonna take that for recycling.
Now let's take our rag, clean out this area where the race just came from. Make sure that you don't have any debris inside there. Make sure that everything's nice and clean along here. Let's move along. So now, we're just gonna get this seal ready here. Just take a little bit of petroleum jelly and go along this inner ring right here, where you can see where that spring is. That's just to kinda hold it in while we mount this. Let's go ahead and put in our brand new bearing race here. Should slide right in, then bottom out. So now, it's gonna be time to coat this bearing. We wanna make sure we do that with some 75-90 gear oil. That's also what we're gonna be using to check and fill the differential in the end. Just get it on all those bearings. Work it around. That feels really good. Just gonna get some along this little cog right here. Nice. Now we're just gonna bring this up. Slide it right in here. Something to pay quick attention to is this little metal ring. It needs to be on the bearing when you put this in. So just go ahead and slide it in. Make sure you've got that metal ring as well. Now let's get the seal on there. Let's go ahead and clean the threads on our bolts. Now we're gonna go ahead and put our seal up on here. Line up those bolt holes.
The next thing we wanna do is take those bolts that we just cleaned, put a little bit of RTV on them, and then we're just gonna start them into their corresponding holes. Now I'm just gonna take a nice metal cup, something that can go over like this. I'm gonna give it a couple loving bonks until the seal is nice and flush up against here. So, what you're gonna find, as you try to push this in, is that the seal tends to wanna rock. If you're hitting on this side, it's gonna kinda pop out on this side, and vice versa. So what you can try to do is just try to snug up these bolts a little bit, and then give it a couple more loving bonks, and then just keep tightening them as you go. So, I have this pretty much bottomed out at this point. I'll bottom these out, and then we're gonna torque them to manufacturer specification. Torque them to 21 foot-pounds.
Now it's gonna be time to install our axle. I like to put a little bit of copper Never-Seez in there. Put your axle on the splines of the stub shaft there. We're just gonna give it a couple loving bonks on the end here, with a nice rubber mallet. Make sure it's locked in. Move along. Now it's gonna be important to make sure you check your front differential fluid. Feeling along the differential cover, you're gonna find a nice rubber plug. Go ahead and clean off around the area, to make sure no dirt or debris can fall into your differential. Get underneath here. Pop it out of the way. To check your differential fluid, you can use a gloved finger. Just come in, bring it down at a little bit of an angle, and make sure you get a teeny bit of fluid. This looks like it's perfectly full. If you need to fill it, use 75-90 gear oil. That back in. Clean up our mess.
A little bit of copper Never-Seez on your splines of your axle. Now let's get our knuckle back on here. Washer there. Now we're gonna start in our upper ball joint. I like to use a nice bar so I can pull down on it. Let's go ahead and snug up this lower ball joint. Now let's torque this to 38 foot-pounds. So now, you just wanna make sure that the slot lines up with your hole in your ball joint. If it doesn't, you need to continue tightening until the next one does. Let's go ahead and put in our locking cotter pin here. Let's torque this to 40 foot-pounds. Now the next thing we're gonna wanna do is get our rotor on here, but before you do that, you need to make sure you clean up your hub, and, of course, clean up the back of your rotor braking surface. We have a new bearing and a new rotor, so I don't have anything to clean here. I'm just gonna go ahead and put it on there. I'm gonna start on a lug nut so that this can't flop around, and we'll continue.
Now it's gonna be time to get our caliper on here. Let's go ahead and slide that right over the rotor. Start in both of your bolts. It's always a good idea to use a little bit of threadlocker. Let's go ahead and snug these up. Torque them to 130 foot-pounds. Let's get our outer tire rod end on here. We'll start the nut, then we'll torque it to 45 foot-pounds. Torque this to 45 foot-pounds. After that, go ahead and put in your cotter pin. Lock it down. Let's put a little bit of red threadlocker on the axle threads, and then put on our axle nut. We'll just bottom this out, and then we'll torque it to manufacturer specifications.
Now it's gonna be time to torque your axle nut. You wanna do that while the vehicle is close to the ground. Have a bar going across the studs and down like this. That's gonna prevent it from spinning. Torque the axle nut to 185 foot-pounds. Now it's gonna be time to get the wheel up on here. Your little cover. Start on all your lug nuts. We'll bottom them out, and then we'll torque them to 130 foot-pounds. Torqued.
Okay, friends. So, now all that's left to do is go ahead and pump up that brake pedal, take it for a road test, and make sure your four-wheel drive works as it should.
