taking out driver's side drive shaft on 88 Jetta

[chrissev]

I put a new driveshaft flange seal in on my jetta today (spring loaded drive shaft flanges - neat, but hard to get back on again) and I couldn't get the end of the drive shaft over the lip of the flange to move it down and out of the way so I thought I would undo the axle nut (the one with the 195 foot pounds of torque) and take the drive shaft right out to get better access.  So I got my breaker bar and started work on the nut, thinking it would be really tight, and it just twisted off as easily as if someone had screwed it on by hand.  So I had a look at it and it is completely stripped, as are the threads on the stub of the drive shaft that goes through the wheel bearing.  So I need to get a new nut and tap this driveshaft end as I can't leave it as it is.  Anyway, my question is is there any way to get the driveshaft out of the car withouth dismantling the suspension?  I have tried turning the steering wheel, pushing it, pulling it, every direction, up down, in out, you name it, I played with it for hours, and I could not get the drive shaft out of the car.  From what I can see I will need to take the suspension off of the hub and then pivot the hub downwards to be able to pull the stub of the drive shaft out from the wheel bearing, meaning I will then have to do an alignment and spend lots of money.  Which sucks.  So, anyone know how to get the right hand side (driver's side) drive shaft completely out of a 1988 Jetta without having to touch the suspension components?  Any advice would be much appreciated (yes, I did get the new drive shaft flange seal in and put the flange back on using the car jack to press it into place and compress the spring).

Chris

[racer_x]

You should be able to push the inner CV out away from the transmission enough to get it clear of the transmission flange. And once it's clear, it should drop down and out of the way.

If you can get the inner CV clear of the transmission, you can drop the drive axle down and pull it out of the wheel bearing and remove it by pulling it toward the middle of the car.

If you can 't get the CV joint clear of the drive flange, you might try loosening the bolts on top of the rubber mounts and sliding the whole engine/transmission to the right a little bit for clearance. Once you are finished, you'll have to put everything back and you might need to adjust the shifter (if you don't get the engine/trans precisely where it was before).