I screwed up big time and need help

[geoart]

While changing a brake rotor on my Outback front wheel (passenger side) I made a couple of dumb errors  -- now I am screwed.

 

First mistake -- I removed the axle nut, which I did not need to do.

 

Second mistake-- thinking I needed to use a puller to pull of the old rotor, the puller pushed the transaxle back to where the axle threads are deep into the hole and the transaxle splines behind the wheel are out and visible.

 

I dont know what to do about it and i need advice a.s.a.p.

 

yikes.

 

Thanks,

 

geoart

[geoart]

I forgot to mention it is a 2000 Outback.

[RUBI RU]

Not all is lost,  All you have to do is get the splines aligned up and then push the cv joint axle back in to the hub to where you can put the axle nut back on.

[geoart]

Thank you. The thing is it won't budge -- is there a good way to push or pull it?

[Prwa101]

WD40 is your best friend. you could always unbolt the lower balljoint bolt 14mm, pry it out and move the hub outa the way and see whats up. must be caught on some grease/dirt/grime. this will make it so you can pull the axle shaft all the way out and asses the problem. 

 

 

fallow this, the bolt im talking about is 52 seconds in. 

 

[Fairtax4me]

It's probably hung up on the lower control arm.

Put a jack under the lower ball joint and raise the hub an inch or so, that should give you some wiggle room to shove the axle back into the hub.

 

The next problem is you need to torque the axle nut to 140 ft-lbs.

[geoart]

Thanks to all of your insight I was able to pry up on the shaft and it popped right into place. Then I just pulled on the shaft and the threads came right out.

I appreciate your help immensely..

 

geoart.