When taking the engine out of the car, I removed the bellows from the tripodes and pulled the axles straight out rather than pulling the complete halfshaft assemblies.
Now I'm ready to change to a custom axle that's an inch and a quarter longer than stock for my hybrid mid-engine conversion Kelmark project build. My Ford manual explains pulling the passenger side tripode with a slide hammer. I presume that the clip on the inside is the compression type like the CV joint end of the axle was. It took some courage to whack the brass drift hard enough to seprate the CV from the axle, and I'm wondering if the tripode is going to be as tough. That's my first question to the experienced guys in the forum.
The manual identifies a tool that is inserted from the passenger side of the tranny to dislodge the drivers side clip, or maybe it pushes the drivers side tripode out. That's my second question. I notice some wobbliness on the drivers side tripode relative to the tranny, so I suspect I have a loose worn spline. Has this been the case for other members? Thanks for your advise and experience in advance.
Gar
Why would anyone take apart the boot? What a PITA to get back together. Just get a slide hammer with CV attachment and pull them out.
In my case, it all comes apart........ that's why I would pull the boot. Do you have experience with the tripode pull? I'm really looking for experienced help or advice on removal and the wobble. I'm not losing tranny oil past the seal on the wobble side, but I expected it to be more firmly attached than it appears to be. Since knocking the CV loose from the axle made me so uncomfortable, I'm hesitant to apply impact force until I know that both sides tripodes were also meant to be removed that way. The manual doesn't tell me how the tool for the drivers side is used, or what to expect. I hunted for earlier posts first.
I am not comrehending what you are trying to do. If the axles need to come out just rent a slide hammer with CV attachment and yank them out. Do whatever you need to do and put them back in.
Thanks, I got an answer. I didn't want to force parts out of ignoance.
I haven't taken the tripode out yet, and fearing the propagation of inaccurate information, I'll park the thread for a bit, and close it with fact when I'm smarter. I suspect that the tool pictured in the Ford manual is to hold the gears in place once the tripodes are removed, and that both sides tripodes come off with a spoon equiped slide hammer.
The core reason for the work in this area is to find a longer axle for the custom suspension I'm building. The Contour uses the formed subframe that I can't duplicate. My frame needs to be wide enough to clear the AC pump on one side, and the tranny bump on the other. My custom control arms are already about as short as they can be, so moving the frame rails outward means using a longer axle inside the halfshaft assembly. In case I didn't mention in this thread, the power is midengine in this car, and I use T-bird knuckles instead of spindles. I have learned through some great guys at A1 Driveshaft, that many Ford products use the same spline down inside the halfshaft. So I've been hunting the various applications for the right length. I'll then assemble what I call a "Franken-shaft"... parts of several cars. The Contour axle is 15 1/2 inch. The Taurus is a bit over what I targeted. It's 17 1/4 long. Curious, some Dodge products use the same spline. From one of the vans, A1 found me an option that is 16 1/4 long. Now I need to re-jig the suspension with these two longer options, articulate the knuckles to define the camber arc, see where the pludge of the tripode ends up, and then adjust the overall width between frame rails. At some point the tripodes may need to come off, but for now I know that I don't need to remove them to find different axle lengths.
One good discovery note to this, is that fact that Taurus guys who want an MXT75 instead of an automatic can build their franken-shaft with Contour tripodes, and Taurus axles.
There, I hi-jacked my own thread, but it makes it more clear why I started it in the first place. I was also a little turned off by the attitude I was sensing in some replies. Moderators can edit all this custom stuff out as they see fit.