Wrightjosh

i am replacing the engine in my 97 es300 and i am stuck i cannot get the pass side cv joint out.
its removed from hub and carrier bolt is out. i have pulled and tugged and it will no come out..
im am thinking there must be a trick or a step i have missed?? tranny is in park does it need to be in nuetral. I have extensive books on this model and they all say pry it out carefully. however the cap to protect the tranny seal is not going to work to pry on.. Please help anyone know a trick?? i am almost ready to scrap this car..

email is tonyajosh20@gmail.com

Wrightjosh

ok now that i have cooled down after my weekend fight with this car it looks like i can cut out a small section of a circle piece of pipe to possibly slip it over the axle between the tranny and the carrier & beat it out of the carrier. all though it does wiggle in & out a 1/16th. i can really see this was a poor design. at least for me to get out.. not much hammer room...the clip has been removed as well as the carrier lock nut..

StuckInVA

I'm not sure if your difficulty is the same as mine was, as I have a 2ES. However, when I took my motor out (then back in, back out, back in, and took the one at the scrap yard out.) This was always a PITA.
On my model ES the CV for the passenger side runs through one of the motor mounts, it is held in place by a lock bolt running through from the outside and by a snap ring on the passenger side of the mount,

beyond removing these two obstacles the manual states that the joint should slide out with firm pulling pressure. Bull ****,

If yours is like this, and you plan on replacing the CVs anyway, get a reciprocating saw and cut it out; easiest and fastest way to get it out. If you plan on reusing them (again no idea if they are the same) then let me know and I'll walk you through a DIY slide hammer.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^ Yup, x2 on that. My mech. and I had a hell of time, thinking it was going to be a breeze - NOPE! Ended up sending it out to a machine shop with a specific press for this due to awkward size.

Mine was so seized, no matter what force you'd put on it, nothing would budge. Then again the snap ring was so tight it took me a good hour to **** with it to get it out.

StuckInVA

OMG, and the space you get to work with. screw the Japanese and their tiny hands.

I am pretty sure I found the best way to get the snap ring back on though.
If you take a small hose clamp with a screw adjuster you can run it down to hold it compressed and after you have it in place you can just loosen/slide the clamp off. It's a lot easier than trying to compress it with pliers and install it.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^ once I took the old one off, it was scrap, as I bent it. It was border line rusted/seized in somehow.

When the new axle was pressed in at the machine shop, a new snap ring went along with it. Hoping to never replace the axle again, as the OE lasted 140k. But in either case, a new 10$ ring was worth it.

Wrightjosh

I had ordered the tool to drive it out from the drivers side.. but, if it doesn't come out i will just cut them and replace as they should be replace anyway due to miles and age.. they couldn't have made an engine swap any harder on this car!! no wiring harness disconnects for engine. had to disassemble and remove intake and many other parts to slowly remove wiring harness off engine to remove engine.. I really thought the quality of this car would show in all aspect but apparently not on the repair side of things.. man happy im not a Lexus mechanic.. think i would hunt down the engineers on this car and wreak havoc

LeX2K

The procedure is to remove the harness from the ECU inside the cabin. As for the engineering on a Lexus, try working on a German luxury car and come back and tell me what you think about your car.

StuckInVA

^ What he said, ECU is behind the glove box. go unplug the harness and take it out on the engine bay side.

Wrightjosh

awesome, thanks for the help on this. at least i Will be able to re install the wiring harness and complete engine this way. it will save a ton of time leaning over the car. i wondered about a disconnect inside but didn't want to start tearing into the dash to look. sound like i just need to take out glove box and disconnect wire harness from main ecu is this the computer?? then pull back thru firewall?? huge time saver was not looking forward to slowly assembling wires and intake as i have already removed them.. at least now i can put them on engine while i have it on the stand..
have complete gasket set & belt but i need to get new water pump, new cv axles and tensioner for belt. i donot want to do this again.. anything else i should hit while i have it out? appreciate the input on this..

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^ that's it, pop out glovebox carefully, remove the trim plate for cd-changer surround/base of glove box. Opens up a plethora of wiring, far right being the amp, the one to the left of amp is the ECU with 5 harnesses going to it - if i recall.

Since you're yanking it out, change the rear main seal, odds are it's sweating like on most cars... once it's all buttoned up its a ***** of a job -labor wise for a <30$ gasket.

incharlest

Some advice for ya as I had a hell of a time getting mine out. I ended up using a sawzall with about 15 bi-metal blades and hours of work to cut the thing in half. If I could go back in time I would just cut the motor mount holding the axle in place and buy a new mount for $170 or so. Keep in mind I had my car on a lift and I think I used jack of sorts to hold the engine up.

incharlest

Forgot to mention...when I removed the the axle it was still in the motor mount. It took 8,000 pounds of pressure to press it out.