Okay... apparently, no one has actually changed out an entire axle assembly, or at least hasn't come forward. As Tom4Bren said, it's much more involved than the simple 4-bolt, 1-retaining ring instructions for changing just the boots.
Here's what I've found after taking it apart as far as I dared.
A complete axle assembly is built like this:
outer spline->outer CV joint->shaft->inner CV joint->cup (also called an inner housing)->inner spline
Like Tom said, the CV boot repair instructions are helpful, but they leave the splines attached to the vehicle. This is because you can simply pull the inner CV joint out of the cup, easily disassemble it, and slide the new baffles on from that end.
If you want to remove and replace an entire assembly, including the splines, a much more involved process is required:
OUTER SPLINE: From what I can see, complete disasembly of the wheel is required. This probably will involve removing the brakes, removing that big honkin axle nut, repacking the bearings, etc. Unfortunately, I can't find anything here detailing this. Even the manual seems to be a little sparse.
INNER SPLINE: You have to completely drop the differential to remove the inner splines and cups. There is already an excellent tutorial on this.
Caveat: Depending on how much slack is present, you do not HAVE to replace the inner cup. You can simply purchase an axle assembly which stops at the inner CV (doesn't have the cup/inner housing), and reuse the prexisting cup. However, I've heard that the bearings in the aftermarket CV axle assemblies are smaller than factory, and will rattle around in the cup.
I would expect however, that if only your outer CV joint is bad, and you've purchased an axle assembly without the inner housing, you could disassemble the new inner CV on on the replacement axle assembly and use the CV joint from the old one instead, couldn't you?
I anyone has more information on removing the wheel assembly to get at the outer CV spline, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks
-Mike
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