Nj front diff replacement help

[Sammy.see]

Hey everyone.
First time posting so hope im in the right area..
I heard a sort of ticking noise from the front area of my NJ pajero. Removed my inner shaft (drivers side) going into the drive shaft housing and found half of the spline teeth ground off. Was told to replace the front diff as well, as this has caused it.

So now im trying to remove my outter cv's. I think i need to remove the hub on passenger side but am having difficulty removing the lower ball joint between the lower ccontrol arm and hub on passenger side.. also how does the passenger side cv shaft seperate from housing? Is it just a matter of a hard pull?

Any help is greatly appreciated as im a bit of a noob with cars (in case you didnt notice from my poor terminology)

[Sammy.see]

Or can someone direct me to a post thread where these steps have been posted?
Cheers.

[stumagoo]

you are on the right track, yes the hub needs at least the bottom ball joint released to allow the CV's to come out, espeially on the passenger (left hand) side - more on that in a moment. I use 2 large hammers and hit both sides (or one if you dont have 2 hammers) of the hub to shock the BJ out. Try to hit 180deg of each other if you can and either side of where the thread goes through the hub. The alternative is a Ball joint breaker but I never seem to have any luck with those myself. Iff you decide to hit the end of the thread be aware it is very easy to destroy the thread, I put have an old nut on flush with the end and hit that in extreme situations but I have also seen the thread destroyed by hitting the end of the ball joint.

The passenger side has no Bolts as you have probably seen, so if you have a CV in goo condition a good hard pull on it and it should come out of the diff, yes the Hub needs to be off the end of the shft to do this. If you have an aftermarket CV (not green) then you may have one that has no retaining clip in it and pulling on the Axle will just pull the guts out of the CV (yes some do suffer from this). if that is the case the best option I have seen is a large hose clamp secured on the CV and use that with a pry bar to lever the CV out of the diff. Be carefull not to damage the seal in there when reinstalling, or it all has to come apart again.

[Sammy.see]

Thanks for the reply. Ill give the double hammer trick a go. 24 years of abuse tends to make things tighter then expected im starting to learn haha. My cv is the green one so hopefully no dramas there. Also when installing the diff do i need to rotate the prop shaft or wheels to a certain postion or can i just bolt everything straight back up?
Cheers again.

[stumagoo]

I would normally use a paint pen or similar and mark the flanges so you can bolt it back the way they were - of course you are using a new diff so thats not valid, when I did that I just took a punt abnd bolted it all together. (both front and rear) and had no vibration issues - if you do undo the bolts and rotate the prop shafts 90deg at a go to see if you can remove vibrations