Yes, fluid came out of mine when I did it. Only a bit. I just popped the new axle in, and kept driving. Never topped it off.

 

Cool, thanks Mustang5L5! Dropped off the axle at a shop earlier to have it rebooted, just waiting on them to give me a call that its done so I can put the car back together. This is my 2nd time tackling a axle job. Last year I did the drivers side and this time the passenger side. This thread's been a great help, thanks to everyone that's provided info/guidance! Its made the process a lot smoother and less intimidating.

 

So I attempted this job a few weeks ago. And now my differential has a very slow bit of oil dripping off the bottom of it :/
I wouldn't say the procedure went off without a hitch though. I had a helluva time getting the old axle out (im all by myself and pretty much noob). Now when i went to push the new one in it wouldn't go all the way in by hand (and im no weakling :/) no matter what i could always pull it back out by hand. I was about out of time and needed my car operational. I tapped the outer end of the axle w a mallet until i couldn't pull it out by hand and reassembled everything and also drained and filled the front differntial oil. Everything seemed to work fine. But a few days ago i noticed some weird luls and skips in the engine. Especially after a good high rev. Which prompted me to look under car and notice a drip of fluid on bottom front differntial.
So today i pull it all apart again and same thing is happening... i cant get it back in there, but this time i look up in the hole more. And i see this spring thing just kind of loose and ***** nilly up in there kinda towards the front. Is this normal? Anybody got any idea what my issues are? Thanks my g35's!

 

I believe that clip should be over the snout of the CV axle. See that groove towards the end?

 

Oh I've done CV Shafts alright. I've replaced the front CV Shafts at least 3 times on each side in the past 5 months, I'm not joking. Don't buy CV Shafts from RockAuto, don't buy CV Shafts from O'reilly, and don't buy CV Shafts made by FEQ. Both CV Shafts I bought from RockAuto and FEQ went bad immediately after installing them while on the test drive. A couple of the MPV CV Shafts I bought from O'Reilly lasted a couple months, a couple being maybe 4,000 miles (I drive a lot for work). I've put a NAPA CV Shaft in the front right, it's worked great so far.
You can change out the CV Shafts out pretty easily, you don't have to take the caliper or rotor off. Just gently manipulate it into place by moving the steering knuckle after taking off the nut holding it onto the control arm. When I swapped out the shitty MasterPro CV Shaft for the NAPA one it only took me about 45 minutes, maybe less. NAPA has been the only decent product for me so far. Raxles are supposed to be kick *** but I've never used them, because I apparently like to learn the hard way. Needless to say, I'm getting quite proficient at changing out the front CV Shafts on the G35x

 

I'm replacing the front, drivers side CV axle of my '06 G35x. When I go to buy the new part, I'm seeing what looks like two different parts which are both for the front drivers side:

One has a 'plug' at the differential side:







Another has shaft with splines that appear to go in the differential:




Which one is the correct one? Thanks!

 

Top one is the correct one. It actually bolts to the flange, and it's recommended to purchase new bolts

http://www.nicoclub.com/service-manu..._G35_Sedan/fax

Page 19

 

Thanks for the input, Mustang5L5. I was only able to get the bottom one (w/ the differential shaft) in time for the repair, but it ended up working. Instead of removing the 6 bolts on the CV housing unit, I removed the 3 bolts connected to the differential housing:





I was able to pull the shaft of old CV axle out and put the new one.

If you can get the CV axle w/o the differential shaft, it's likely a cheaper and easier repair though.

 

I didn't even know that part was that easily removable.

 

Isn't it cool to learn new things about our cars after we've had them all this time??

 

Surprised no one in the thread mentioned a slide hammer. Makes getting old one out/new one seated a whole lot easier. Im replacing both of mine since the differential is all being pulled out anyway. Both are in good shape but I want to send them off for rebuild. Any reccomendations on a shop? I got a solid deal on parts of a rear ended G35x locally.

 

Its a relatively easy fix, take the wheel off, remove the axle nut, separate the upper control arm from the spindle, pull the spindle back a lil, and pop out the cv axle from the front diff with a pry bar and a quick jerking motion, then to put the new one in line up the splines on the diff side and use the cv axle as its own slide hammer and pop the new one in, then tighten everything up and good to go! Coming from someone who has torn apart his AWD front suspension about 5 times now, our cars are pretty easy to work on with the exception of front wheel bearings which you need a press.

 

 

Bump...? Im searching some vids on Youtube/ Google. Even though this video shows a 350z and he's changing the rear is it the same?? Any feedback would be nice.

 

Basically it's the same but the front shafts actually go INTO the front diff unlike the rears which have that little stub shaft with the flange of bolts at the differential that stays in place.

Front axles usually go something like this:

-Jack up vehicle , remove tires, remove plastic undercover

-Remove drive axle nut, personally I cheat and put a screwdriver into the center vanes of the brake rotor and wedge against the brake caliper to keep the rotor from turning it's not the technically "correct" way but I've never damaged a rotor using this method so...

-Remove brake caliper and hang it to the side, mark the pads inboard/outboard in case they fall out so you can get everything back exactly like it was.

-Unbolt the compression rod, transverse link, steering tie rod, and upper control arm from the steering knuck so you can take the knuckle off.

-Now just slide hammer the axle out, make sure the circlip (little metal ring in the groove a the end) came out, visually inspect the front differential inside the hole to make sure there isn't an OLD circlip floating around... this happens way more often then you would think, scroll up a few posts and you'll see a mangled one stuck in someones diff on post #48.

-Installation is the exact opposite, line up the new one, slide hammer (or just use a plastic deadblow mallet which is easier) the new one in, put the knuckle back on, attach all the components, torque the steering knuckle components first, put the screwdriver back into the rotor vanes on the opposite side and torque the axle bolt, use a NEW COTTER PIN.

-Put the tires and undercover back on, it's pretty simple but you're going to need an assortment of sockets because there's quite a few sizes of bolts, the axle bolt is 32mm I think so it's the only oddball, you might need a puller for the ball joints and tie rod end depending on how crusty everything is.

Technically you MIGHT be able to leave the tierod and FUC arm attached and just remove the compression arm and transverse link, sometimes you can turn the knuckle enough with the lower parts removed to get the drive axle out, I like to have more room and have all the pullers for stuff like that so I just take everything off.

I'm sure you can just watch a few youtube videos for both vehicle drive axle replacement as well as G specific front component ones like compression arm replacement to get an idea how all the stuff comes apart. Doesn't need to be for an X model either, literally everything is the same on the RWD except it doesn't have the diff, axle, and a different hub without splines.