How to Remove Front Drive Shaft 2001-05 Chevy Avalanche
Created on: 2017-08-16
Check out this video to learn how to replace the front axle on your 03-06 Chevy Avalanche. 1A Auto shows you how to do it yourself!
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step 1 :Removing the Front Drive Shaft
- Mark the position of the shaft on the u-joint and driveshaft with a marker
- Brace the drive shaft with a pry bar
- Loosen the four 11mm nuts from the shaft
- Pry the drive shaft from the U-joint
- Push the drive shaft backwards and out of the u-joint
- Work a pry bar carefully under the boot
- Slide the drive shaft out of the transfer case
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step 2 :Installing the Front Drive Shaft
- Line up the shaft over the crossmember and into the transfer case
- Line up the markings with the shaft on the u-joint
- Insert the drive shaft into the u-joint
- Tighten the four 11mm bolts to the drive shaft
- Tighten the bolts to 19 foot-pounds
Tools needed
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Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
Rust Penetrant
Pry Bar
Jack Stands
Ratchet
Cloth Rags
Floor Jack
11mm Wrench
11mm Socket
Marker / Writing Utensil
Raise and support your vehicle. The driveshaft and the transfer case to the front axle is located here and connects to the front differential here. Before removing the front driveshaft, mark the two components, so that when we reinstall it, we can line them back up the way they came apart. Spray these bolts as best you can with some rust penetrant. Use the 11 millimeter wrench to break these free.
I'm also going to brace the driveshaft with a pry bar. I like this spot. Now that I've broken these free with a regular wrench, I'm going to use an 11 millimeter ratcheting wrench to speed up the process. These are pretty loose now, I'll take them out with my fingers and place those aside so you don't lose them. You need to get the driveshaft out of the U-joint, so I'm just going to pry up on it a little bit. This one's pretty stuck. I'm going to use the large punch and a hammer to try to free it up. There it is, just had to free it up. They get rusted together.
I'm going to spray some more rust penetrant in there. There it is, just had to work it out. This driveshaft can actually be pushed backwards, and then we'll spin it out of the U-joint. With the driveshaft in one hand, I will take a large pry bar or a large flat-bladed screwdriver. I'm going to work it under this boot and try to push it up as I spin the driveshaft. There is a lip it has to get over. I think I've got it. Once the lip is off of there, we can slide the driveshaft out of the transfer case.
So we're going to line up our match-marks that we made earlier: this one here to this one here. But first, I'm going to slide it up over the cross-member. Guide the driveshaft into the transfer case to line up the splines, and it'll slide right in. Push it in, push the boot over. It'll go into a little channel, it'll lock. That's secure there. Now we can go back up, putting our front driveshaft into the differential. We may need to spin this around, but just be aware that we need to match up our lines that we made before. See if I can get this in here.
This actually has a little bit of play. You can go backwards a bit. Made this up like this. Just kind of move the U-joint around. Okay, so over here now we've got our match-marks, they're in the same spot. We're going to pull the driveshaft out and seat it into the little U-joint cups. Reinstall our bolts and the brackets that hold the U-joint on. Brace the driveshaft with a pry bar. Torque these bolts to 19 foot-pounds. Driveshaft is reinstalled.
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