I literally get the biggest flathead I can find, wedge it on the lip that the lasso just missed, and apply pressure to the diff housing, not the seal and she pops right out. That or a cold chisel on the flat nubs on that inner cup with a HEAVY hammer, I personally have used a 4lb shorty sledge, and out she falls.

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@Drift Monkey I've run into this problem a few times. Mostly because My aftermarket Skid plate doesn't allow me to get a good bite on the cup with a pry bar, and being on jack stands you can't get a good angle on it because of the skid and not enough room before the floor interferes. Some Cir-clips seem to be stiffer than others as well. What I ended up doing is buying a cheap HF dent puller, and grinding down one of the attachments to mate up to the round profile of the cup, put a large hose clamp on there, and it has worked pretty well.
The other thing I noticed is that when you install the CV, they tell you to make sure the opening of the cir-clip is pointing up for an easier install. So if you rotate the cup a little after each time you snatch on it, the cir-clip will eventually find a spot that is a little less resistant, and it will pop right out. It is literally one of the most frustrating problems I've ever come across, especially when it seems people can get them out with no issues what so ever. The CV in the pic is a Toyota dealer reman, which fit really well, had no vibrations, but the inner boot only lasted 10k miles. It's WAY TOO THIN and cheap. That really pissed me off. Should have stretched it. So I feel your pain. Good Luck!!

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I got it pretty quickly after trying again with just turning and using LESS force to tap it out with the lasso.

I know all too well the skid/jack stands pry bar issue haha. I removed the middle plate to get better leverage when I used that method last time...took forever! The hose clamp/slide hammer trick looks neat, I've heard a few mention it, this this seems to work equally as well once the clip is at an angle that cooperates.

I found having the c-clip opening facing DOWN allows gravity to pull the clip down towards the groove, making it smaller and easier to pull/insert. I'm knocking out the knuckle seals before i reinsert (another pain) but I'll take a pic of how my boots sit with the stretch after I complete it all.

I'm working on the knuckle seal next:

Maybe the clip is supposed to be facing down lol. I'm gettin old, can't remember. Take your time with that knuckle seal. You can damage the race taking the old one out and the new ones are a little temperamental when your tapping it back in. Glad your making progress!!

Yeah, opening facing down is the way to go, confirmed yesterday haha.


Before.


After.


The knuckle seals were a minor pain...I wedged a flat head in and hammered 'em out - that was the easy part. The "dust-cap-as-a-seal-driver" trick worked well enough (although I have some beat up dust caps now lol) but it took some decent effort to knock them completely flush.

I tried the "attach the diff seal to the CV and slide the whole thing in" method and it seemed to work, no leaking on the passenger side anymore! Used the entire CV as a slide hammer (circlip opening facing down helps a ton here).

I got some pictures of my CV angles/corresponding boot stretch/slide mod references.



The above 2 examples here are sitting on my inclined driveway to the angles are exaggerated. Note the lack of rubbing on any of the ribs.



Reversed up the driveway for comparison. The ribs obviously aren't rubbing here but they also aren't super stretched at a much flatter angle.

It's definitely worth spending the $10 or so on a seal removal tool for next time. Takes 5 seconds to pop those seals out. This thread has me nervous now. I just threw on new CVs without stretching them and had to go with china CVs because my vehicle was down and out. Guess I should start preparing myself for another set.

I replaced the CV joints on one of my 2005 4Runners yesterday. Hardest part was getting the first Knuckle seal in. I’d start one side and the other side would just unseat and vice versa. finally went to Home Depot and picked up a plastic 4 inch yard drain pipe cover, which for all appearances was made to fit exactly in the knuckle seal. It fits PERFECTLY inside the seal. You can then use that to hammer in the seal most of the way, followed by a punch to finish/fully seat the seal. Also found that not greasing the seal or the hub race that the seal presses into helps prevent the seesawing of the seal while trying to hammer it in.

As far as popping out the CV from the inner seal, AutoZone has a fork shaped tool called a “Popper” that you can get on loan. Just shimmy it back and forth while pushing it into the crack between the CV and the Diff housing and the CV will pop right out. Just remember to lever away from the diff seal and toward the CV to keep from damaging the inner seal.

To install the CV I used a drift and short 4 lb maul hammer. It helps to have someone pushing in on the CV while you hammer it to keep the CV from rebounding on the hammer strokes. Short, firm, RAPID hammer strikes worked quickly on both CVs. I couldn’t get anywhere with long, harder strokes. Positioning the drift over the lower control arm to achieve a shallow striking angle also helped.

Hope that helps someone.

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Nice job! The axle nut dust cap also fits perfectly in the knuckle seal - I had the same problem getting it to seat.

Circlip opening down and using the whole CV as a slider hammer works to insert the CV and the lasso ended up working great to remove, although it is beat up and dirty now. Attaching the seal to the axle before "slide hammering" it in also worked to seat the seal just right - I made a road trip this weekend and no leaks!

I'm glad you got everything together! Did you stick the seals in the freezer or no? Wondering whether that's necessary/helpful.

Thanks man, everyone's tips helped a ton. I didn't stick the seal in the freezer just greased it up with diff oil and slid it in with the axle just like ya said. So far so good!

Glad you got it figured out!

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