New CV joints...almost.
 

Had my father-in-law over today, and we finally got both CV joints installed along with the front wheel bearings. We're putting it all back together, about to cross the finish line, and we discover that the CV shafts are not protruding out from the little 5-bolt hub end piece, so we can't put the snap ring on and finish the job. It looks like we need to pull the shafts out just about a half-inch. Does anyone know if a particular trick/tool/apparatus that could be used in that threaded hole on the end of the CV joint to do this? Is this even possible, or is there something we may have done wrong in the process of putting it together?

I had to use a bolt (sorry dont remember size) a short piece of pipe and a couple heavy washers to pull mine (probably could use a large 1/2" drive socket also). They probably have a couple of machining burrs on the splines.

If I'm not mistaken a drive flange bolt fits the threaded end of the half-shaft.
It's should slide out easily as I normally just use a hooked tool (cotter pin tool actually) to grab a thread.

Use a smaller bolt, and lock the threads, pull out.

Okay, so I'm not crazy. Awesome. The first thing we tried was a drive flange bolt, and they were just a little too small in diameter. I think the splines are a little stiff from being new, may have some burrs or something, because the drive flanges needed to be slid on with the aid of a mallet. When we made it to this point in the project, we were pretty much out of time for the weekend, so I didn't have much time to experiment with it. Thanks for the tips, we'll figure something out.

You may also want to make sure your wheel bearings are fully tight as the is a factor in how much of the stub hangs out past the drive flange

Did you put any lube on those splines? I hate to even think about beating new parts together with a mallet. Should they be put in dry or pre-lubed? I prefer finese whenever possible. I realize that may not always be the case however.

Cooter: I wondered about that as well. We had a socket, but it turned out to be too shallow to reach the inner nut, so we calibrated our elbows and torqued it with channel locks. Since I won't be able to get back to it until the weekend, I've gone ahead and gotten the proper tool on order, and I'm going to actually follow the torque spec. Hopefully that will make a little bit of a difference.

Danny: Once you've got all these parts out and start handling them, there really isn't anything that's NOT lubed up after about 5 minutes. The grease migrates pretty quickly, and there's plenty of it. We didn't have to wail on the flanges or anything, but they certainly weren't going on with hand force. I'd prefer they slide on nicely, but they didn't.

I am sure you will find that fixes the problem, good luck

Ok, I was just wondering. So many people do end up beating on parts and then regretting it. I know I have as well.

I bought the adapter from RN, but all it is is a flared piece of tubing, it fits the locknuts nicely but I could not use a torque wrench with it since it turns by putting a bar or screwdriver thru a hole in the other end. For my torque wrench I need a standard type socket. So I still had to guess at how tight it needed to be.

I have not had to get that far into the front end yet. Did you take any pics?