How to Replace Drivers Side CV Axle 2009-14 Chevy Traverse
Created on: 2018-03-22
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace broken, worn, or vibrating CV axles on 04 Chevy Traverse New CV Axle Shaft from 1AAuto.com.
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step 1 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 2 :Removing the Axle Nut
- Remove the center cap
- Reinstall the wheel
- Tighten the lug nuts by hand
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Loosen the axle nut with a 34mm socket and breaker bar
- Raise and secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the wheel
- Tap on the end of the cv axle with the nut flush with the shaft
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step 3 :Removing the Brake Caliper and ABS Sensor
- Pry the brake pads into the caliper with a flat blade screwdriver to push in the pistons
- Remove 13mm bolts from the brake caliper
- Pull the caliper aside
- Remove the 10mm bolt from the ABS sensor
- Remove the ABS sensor from the knuckle
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step 4 :Removing the CV Axle
- Remove the lower strut bolts with 24mm socket and breaker bar, counterholding with a 21mm wrench
- Tap the end of the axle with a hammer to release it
- Remove the nut
- Slide the axle out of the knuckle
- Have a drain pan ready
- Pry the axle out of the transmission
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step 5 :Installing the CV Axle
- Insert the CV axle into the transmission until it hits the lock ring
- Tap the CV axle into place with a dead blow hammer until it's locked in
- Clean off any leaks from the transmission case with brake parts cleaner
- Insert the CV axle into the knuckle
- Thread the axle nut on by hand
- Insert the lower strut bolts into the knuckle
- Tighten the strut bolts with a 24mm socket and ratchet and a 21mm wrench
- Torque the nuts to 144 foot-pounds
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step 6 :Installing the Brake Caliper and ABS Sensor
- Insert the ABS sensor into place
- Tighten the 10mm bolt to the sensor
- Put the caliper on
- Thread bolts by hand
- Tighten bolts to 42 foot-pounds
- Clean the rotor with brake parts cleaner or mineral spirits
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step 7 :Reattaching the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the lug nuts by hand
- Tighten the lug nuts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
- Tighten the hub nut to 173 foot-pounds
- Press on the center cap
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step 8 :Testing the Transmission Fluid Level
- In a well ventilated area, start and run the vehicle to operating temperature
- Turn the transmission fill/dipstick counterclockwise
- Wipe off the dipstick
- Insert the dipstick into place
- Measure the fluid level
- If needed, insert a funnel into place
- Add the appropriate amount and type of transmission fluid
- Check the amount with the dipstick
- Tighten the cap
Tools needed
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24mm Socket
Funnel
Torque Wrench
Hammer
Pry Bar
Jack Stands
Brake Parts Cleaner
21mm wrench
Rubber Mallet
24mm Wrench
Flat Blade Screwdriver
34mm Socket
Bungee Cord
10mm Socket
Transmission Fluid
Floor Jack
Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
You're going to loosen the lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground so the wheels and tires don't move on you. Go around and loosen all of them. Raise and support the vehicle. We've used our two post lift. But you can use a jack and jack stands. Finish removing the lug nuts and remove the wheel.
To remove this axle nut, there's no cotter pin. It's just a lock nut with a large amount of torque on it. But you want to be able to remove it. You can either have someone hold the brake because this will want to spin as you try to remove it or we can pop up the center cap of the wheel. Reinstall the wheel, lower the vehicle back down to the ground, with the vehicle's weight on it, and loosen the axle nut.
To remove the center cap, it just pops out from behind. We'll just put that aside. Reinstall the wheel. You don't have to put all the lug nuts back on. Since we've got six, I'm just going to do four of them. We're just going to put the wheel back on so it's flush, and we put the vehicle down on it. Let's spray some rust penetrant on here to help the nut come off. Use the long breaker bar and 34 millimeter socket. Break this loose.
To help me take it off, I've switched to a ratchet. I'm going to remove it just to the end of the threads. This way, when the vehicle's in the air, I'll be able to spin it off. It won't want to turn on me. Leave it just like that. We're going to spray some rust penetrant in here on the spline. You want to make sure that this CV axle will come loose from the wheel bearing and knuckle. So I'm going to tap on it.
You want to tap on it with the nut here because this way. Actually, I'll spin this down so it's flush on the end of the axle shaft. You don't want to damage the end of the axle shaft. So by tapping on it with the nut, it'll prevent you from potentially mushrooming out the end of the axle shaft if you want to reuse it. There should be some in and out play on this, and I just want to make sure that when I loosen this knuckle and pull it down that the axle shaft will actually come free. So I'm just going to tap it some more.
We're going to loosen the knuckle and tilt it down from the strut. I don't want to hang it by the rubber brake hose. So I'm going to remove the caliper and hang it from the strut. You're going to use a 13 millimeter box wrench to loosen the caliper slide bolts. There's one on the bottom and the top. Put those aside. Slide the caliper off the brake pads. Grab a bungee cord. You're going to put it around the strut. This one's a bit long. Give it a couple loops here.
Use a 10 millimeter socket extension ratchet and remove the 10 millimeter bolt holding in the wheel speed sensor. The wire clips to the strut and then bolts into the knuckle. I don't want to stretch the wire and break it when I remove the knuckle from the strut. So we're going to get this ABS sensor out of the way. Unthread the bolt. Twist it. It's kind of stuck in there. Twist it back and forth. Don't pull on the wires. Work it back and forth and then wiggle it out. We'll put that up here out of the way.
You're going to remove the strut bolts and the head of the bolt is 21 millimeters. The nut is 24 millimeters. I'm going to turn on the nut to remove that. The bolt is also splined and caught in the aluminum knuckle. So it shouldn't move. But I do want to cotter hold it just in case it does move. So we'll break this one free. Use a breaker bar. Cotter hold it. Break it free. Careful not to smash the fender. Once they're loose, you could switch to a ratchet and remove them a little quicker. We’re going to leave the nuts just like that.
I don't want to damage the end of the bolts because I do need to tap them out. We're going to take a hammer and just tap these out. We'll take the nuts off. We'll push in on the knuckle a little bit. Take the bolts out and this should want to slide down. Tap the axle knuckle. Just a little seized up in there. So tap it a little more. There is it. Pull the CV axle out of the back of the knuckle. There we go.
You can use a large pry bar. Carefully pry on the edge of the CV axle against the transmission case. This CV axle will pop out of the transmission. You may lose some fluid. You might want to have a little drain pan here and then of course, at the end, just check and top off your transmission fluid. So sometimes if you give it a couple, a little bit of a bouncing, you might have to go up this way. See that I don't pry out that hose. Go this way with it. Pry at it. It comes off the snap ring.
I'm going to switch over here. I'm going to pull it straight out. So there's some transmission fluid coming out. I don't want to damage the seal on the transmission and support it. Pull it straight out. Pull on the cup. You don't want to just pull on this. You might separate it. So there we have it. It's dripping some fluid, but we'll clean that up and top it off afterwards.
Here's our original CV axle we pulled from our vehicle and our brand new one from 1AAuto.com. There's no core charge on this. It's brand new, ready to go. It's the same style and design as the original. This'll fit great and work great for you. It comes with a brand new locking nut.
We need to swap over this little washer. It's got three tabs. We're going to gently pry up on them with a small, flat-bladed screwdriver. Pull that off real quick. Take this axle nut off. Put the new washer on. It's ready to be installed. Just go in here with a rag. I'll just clean that seal a little bit. It's going to keep leaking. Basically, you want to go straight in with this, not damage the seal.
You're going to have to turn it and find the splines. It's going to get to a point where it's going to want to stop because it's hitting the lock ring. Take our dead blow. We're going to hit it into place. There it goes. Now it's locked in place. We'll use some brake parts cleaner and clean up the spilled oil. That way, we can tell if there's leaks later on. Just going to clean off some of this dirt here.
Going to reinstall the axle. You can bend it, and then we're going to lift up on the knuckle and you might have to turn this to get the splines to line up. It should slide right in. Put our new axle nut on here. You don't have to tighten it all the way down. It is a locking one. You can see the little indents there. Let's just get it down to end of the splines. That way, it doesn't fall out.
Let's get our strut to knuckle bolts ready to go. Those are those splines I was talking about. Line them up. You can use a jack if you need to. But you want to lift this up, get it into place. Bolt goes through from the back. Get that out of the way. Do the same for the other one. You might have to push on it to get it to line up. They'll kind of collect into those splines that are in there. You can give them a little tap if you want to. But the nuts will draw them in. So we'll snug these up and then torque them afterwards. I'll do the same for both of them. Torque the nuts to 144 foot pounds. When it clicks, you're all set.
Reinstall the ABS wheel speed sensor. It'll slide back into the opening. Reinstall the bolt. Get it threaded in by hand. It's just a steel bolt going into aluminum knuckle. Just gently tighten it up. I don't want to break it off or strip. So once I feel it get tight, I'll stop.
I'm going to reinstall the brake caliper. Just unhook it from our bungee cord. Don't forget to take it off when you're done. Put the brake caliper back on. It should slide right back on because we haven't changed the brake pads. Reinstall the caliper slide bolts. Snug these up and then torque them afterwards. Torque these to 42 foot pounds. Once they click, then you're done. I'll just tighten this nut down until it stops and then lower the vehicle on the ground and we'll torque it. Don't forget to remove your bungee cord. I touched the brake rotor with greasy hands. I don't want that getting on the braking surface. So I'm going to use some brake parts cleaner. Just clean it off.
Reinstall the wheel. Lower the vehicle to the ground and torque the axle nut. You're going to torque the lug nuts in a cross pattern to 140 foot-pounds. We’re going to torque this axle nut to 173 foot-pounds. When you're all set, simply push the center cap back in place. In a well ventilated area, we're going to start it up and run the vehicle until it comes up to temperature so we can check the transmission fluid. With the vehicle up to temperature, the transmission fill and dipstick is down here. We're going to turn it counterclockwise to unlock it. It'll pull straight up. The dipstick's on the end. You're going to wipe it off and put it back in. So that's actually low.
Let me just check it again. Turn it in and it'll unlock it. Pull it out. So, yes, that is, in fact, low. It's not even showing on the stick. It's very, very low. We're going to use a long funnel and add the appropriate amount of transmission fluid. I'm going to take the funnel out and just check the amount. Reinstall the dipstick. So right there, it's at the max line. That's perfect. You're going to reinstall the dipstick and the cap. Turn it clockwise to lock it in place and clean up any spilled fluid.
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