Pre-coffee ramble.....sorry for the dysfunctional writing.

Not doing a write up, but I understand how frustrating working on these can be at times. If you see my other threads, I've always sourced the web and MBW for tips and tricks. Unlike working on a Tacoma....resources can be somewhat limited at times.

In the last few months I've pulled both CV axles. A few things about the drivers side AFTERMARKET I had installed the day before my cross country move. I had a tear in my inner boot. My indy could not get a boot kit in time or even an MB axle (which are all remanufactured and on backorder...so you will NOT find one. Tons of good used ones from junkers on eBay though). He said he could get an aftermarket. As I was moving 2 days later, I said ok. I immediately felt a vibration after leaving the shop. Not so much while driving, but just with the vehicle in park and the engine running. Then, foot on brake and car in D or R and the vibration got worse. I'd describe it as n almost binding type sound and feel.....when not moving mind you...just the car in gear. Doing some research I found that most aftermarket CVs suck (knew that) and that our 4matics really hate aftermarket axles. I drove 4k miles dealing with the binding and finally rebooted the OEM axle. I'd really stopped enjoying the GLK due to the vibration and bind. Swapped it yesterday and man...she's back to perfect. One thing to note is the design of the aftermarket axle. After I removed it, I immediately noticed play and slop in the joints themselves...garbage. I wanted to teach my kid about axles and joints, so I cut off the boots to show him the outer CV vs the inner tripod. The outer was a standard CV joint but the inner was NOT a tripod. It was actually another outer type joint with the ball bearings and races. What in the hell ?????? So, if you have a boot problem or anything not serious....rebuild the thing. You can even find tripod bearings online. If you don't want to rebuild, grab a used OEM axle out of a donor from eBay. Both will be better than that aftermarket junk.

Here are a few things I learned. On a sidenote, HABBYGUY did a great video which gives a lot of info. Oh, and have a big hammer....not a roofing hammer.

Passenger side:
I pulled this in an initial attempt to stop the clicking from my other thread. MB also states to pull this to refill the front diff, as there's only a drain hole and no fill hole. Yes, you could refill it as you do when replacing your ATF I suppose. Here's what I did:
- Loosened axle bolt
- Remove wheel
- Turned wheel
- Pop stub out of the hub. Fight it enough and it will come out.
- Get underneath and beat the can portion with a brass punch. You have to smack it good and the internal clip will eventually give and the thing will pop out.
- Fish the axle out
- Slide in new axle and fight like hell to get the splines lined up.
- Fight the angles and the remaining suspension parts to get the stub into the hub
- Beat it in. Now, mine got stuck almost fully seated. Even jacking everything up and hitting the stub end did not work. After some time, I realized that the inner splines were binding somewhere just before seating in the diff. The outer edge of the can (inner joint tulip) was ever so slightly hanging a bit low. We put a pry bar under it and gave it a nudge up...tap...popped right in. Again...angles and stuff.

Drivers Side:
- Remove the plastic tray underneath
- Loosened axle bolt
- Remove wheel
- Turned wheel
- Pop stub out of the hub. Fight it enough and it will come out.
- Hit the back of the can with a big brass punch. Here's where you have to be careful. Unlike the passenger side, this drivers axle is attached to the intermediate shaft. Since I had a relatively new shaft in, mine came out in a pinch. If you have an older car, higher miles or rust....and you smack it too hard....you can break the retaining lip on the oil pan. There was a guy on a forum who did that. It's expensive and a pain in the ***. The intermediate shaft has a bearing pressed on. This bearing is held against the oil pan by a small snap ring. If my car was older, I'd work to take that snap ring out first (even if not removing that shaft). This way, if you have to beat on the cup hard and the slip joint doesn't release....worst thing that can happen is you pull the intermediate shaft out with the stub axle. May as well swap them both if that happens.
- Slide the axle out between the suspension components
- Reinstall new axle. Again, you're fighting against angles and binding
- Put inward pressure until the tripod bottoms out in the cup, then hit the stub shaft. Eventually it'll walk on and seat.

Now, the above are the basic steps. Let me give you a few tips on how I ACTUALLY did my drivers side and how I would not have had any binding issues if I'd done the passenger side the same way. The biggest pain in the *** are binding due to angles and all the crap in your way. So....take the 10 minutes to do this on either side...trust me.

- loosen axle nut, jackstands, drip tray, blahblah
- Remove the 2 bolts and pull the brake caliper. Remove the pads and hang the actual caliper
- Remove both lower strut bolts completely
- Remove the cables and brake lines from the plastic holders
- Undo the upper sway bar link connection. I believe its an 18mm nut and 18mm box wrench on the back side
- Remove the 3 bolts holding the strut into place in the engine bay
- Pull the strut assembly out
- Now you actually have a ton of room. The CV axle can slide straight out. When reinserting...it goes straight in. No binding, no fighting anything, no crazy angles. You have a ton of access to lay underneath, push the tripod into the can fully, have someone hit the stub end. You can even watch from underneath to see and even slightly adjust the can and make sure it's going on perfectly straight. My kid and I fought with the drivers side for over an hour before I said F it and pulled the additional parts. It literally takes 10 minutes...hell, probably less. The time savings and ease are worth a ton.

No pics or full details, but I hope this may help someone who is nervous about doing this. I swore I'd never attempt this again. I was in a rush and the bearing seemed fine so I did not replace my intermediate shaft/bearing with the one I ordered from MB. Knowing how much easier it can be by removing the extra crap, I have no issues with tackling this again to swap that intermediate shaft down the road.

Again...if your car is rusty from salt....you may have a harder time. The stub axles in the knuckles and the drivers axle to intermediate axle slip joint seem to be the areas that can seize up in crappy conditions....not sure what advice to give you if that happens. There are a few resources I've found googling where folks have dealt with those. I just wanted to give some tips on the basic swap.

Good luck

Here's the aftermarket axle. The inner joint is on the left in the pic. Almost looks like they tried to make it look like a tripod joint from the outside...since the cup/tulip looks exactly like the OEM cup. The ball bearings were less than smooth. Weird.

There’s no reason that couldn’t work — “iff” it was made right. From your experience and others, it clearly was junk thrown together to make a buck.