I soaked it pretty good with some PB blaster. I guess I will have to give in and take the skid plates off as well.
Hopefully the damn thing will fall out with the first love "tap" with the 3lb sledge.

I had to pull it out. Its been crackling for some time when I back up or go over the curb in the driveway. The other day, it started vibrating at lower speeds, I could feel it at lower speeds. The front CV is toast! The boot is just about non-existent! All the grease is spattered in a nice circle around the front joint, I think of it as free corrosion protection...

The ultimate cause of my driveshaft failure is lowering the front end. When I did the diff drop, I never lifted the front end back up to the height I had it before, this is because I needed to reindex the torsion bar on the passenger side from doing the superflexy IFS install. Once I trailed it with the front lowered, I was amazed at the increase in performance and ride, I never bothered. I also never bothered to note that my drive shaft CV was at a negative angle So, for those that want to lower their VX, be careful, there may be more issues in the future (besides the fact of removing any ability to get away from zombies or erupting volcanoes)