I’ve been at it for 2 days now. I’m installing Cardone HD axles. I catch the splines and am able to rotate the wheels but the axles will not seat. I know it’s the slip ring, but it doesn’t seem to be any different than the ring from the OEM axle I removed. Any ideas? I’ve tried to put some grease on them to hold the rings in place but it hasn’t helped.

 

Give the end of the axle a decent whack with a dead-blow (plastic or rubber head) mallet. Keep cv axle aligned straight with the diff, then whack the cv axle on its' end.

If I recall correctly, I started the splines just a bit and then gave a quick jolt force by hand to slam it home. My passenger side replacement was easier than my driver side for some reason.

Those C rings do take some force to get them to seat. A little grease might help it seat in.

Did you watch some vids?
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...+install+GX470

 

I put a long pry bar and wedge it against the inner cv metal housing, and give it a good whack with 3 lb hammer on the end of pry bar to drive it into the diff.

 

I tried the grease and whacking with a mallet. I’m going to try and compress the retaining ring with some pliers and heat today

 

wedging with a pry bar I haven’t tried yet. I’ll try today

 

How did this turn out? I pulled mine today and re booting hoping to slap back in the a few days.

 

it just took a lot of muscle I wasn’t expecting. The key is to make sure that the axle is straight and not at an angle. I also ended up putting the knuckle on to hold it in place and then I just bashed the hell out of it with a hammer. It’s been great so far, no leaks. You’ll see when you put it on there is a definite click where the splines have fit together, you may have to rotate the axle until you get to that spot, then just bash it.

drivers side took no time at all, so hopefully that’s how both sides work out for you.

 

Tip: Grease the ring good, and put a little grease on the diff side.

 

Yea, I had to bash it also to get it back in. Passenger side was easy, took only a couple whacks. Drivers side had me regretting doing the work for a while. Had to beat it harder than I was comfortable doing for about 20 whacks before it clicked in. It has been over 10K miles now and working fantastic.
I used the Cardone HD axles.