can't remove half shaft 2002 prius

I haven't had to do this work yet. I understand that you should use either a slide hammer or a pry bar, to apply sufficient force to pop the half shaft out of the transaxle.

I hope that you have drained the transaxle ATF prior to pulling the half shaft out.

 

Real big hammer, like a 2 pounder.

 

Don't worry about the seal. It requires new seal anyway after you remove halfshaft.

 

What have you tried so far? Pulling the inner joint by hand?

You will need a pry bar with a blade thin enough to fit in the space between the inner CV joint and the differential. The blade on the pry bar should be no less than 1 inch wide.

For the Gen II Toyota recommends using a SST- special service tool (THE CLAW!!!) that functions about the same way.

The axle should pop loose from the differential as you GENTLY and CAREFULLY pry the inner joint away from the differential. It shouldn't require too much force because the only resistance to the CV axle's removal is the snap ring you mentioned and the spline on the shaft end. Heaven forbid if the axle splines rusted somehow in the differential - that's highly unlikely since the transmission oil is circulating in that spot. But if you had a leaky seal and didn't know it - uh oh - then rust is a possibility and I'm not sure what you would need to do then.

You might be lucky and not need to replace the seal but since you've already done so much work it would be wise to buy a brand new flexible seal.

One friendly hint when reinstalling the half shaft. Do yourself a big favor and see if the matching female spline in the differential housing is split into two halves. If so, you should rotate the differential enough so that the two half splines are lined up vertically. You can rotate the differential by.......that's correct by rotating the differential. I don't exactly remember how I did it because this was seven years ago. Oh well. I think I rotated the flywheel to get the transmission to turn the differential. You probably won't be able to turn the differential from the axle side by turning the axle installed part way - I might be wrong.

Anyway, if you try to install the cv axle with the differential spline halves horizontal you might have a big problem since gravity will interfere with your ability to seat the axle all the way back into the differential because one half of the spline at the top just won't get out of the way - I know - I found out the hard way and tried, tried, and tried again until I finally had the ah ha moment mentioned above. Luckily I didn't get outrageously upset and ruin the axle by using too much force - some have made this COSTLY mistake by using a big hammer and still not getting the axle all the way in - so don't do it.

Good luck. Let us know if you were successful and what it took to release it.

 

Don't use a hammer. The snap ring compresses easily as it moves out through a smaller diameter opening at the edge of the groove it fits into - the snap ring fits in a circular groove. A pry bar will do.