the 2500 mile trip begins, working on upgrades 2017 X3

Motors out. Cut the top of frame off for easy removal. Axles took 4 guys with a slide hammer and pry bars. Indeed these axles have never been out before and were gummed up. This would have been bad to change out in the field.

Greengo said:

Sounds like prior owner spent some time in water or washed it a lot. From my understanding that is the main reason why axles wont come out without brute force. Hell of a job though!

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Well I learned two things here. First off it made no sense to me that going in water or washing car would have any bearing on axles not coming out as the inner part of the cv because its bathed in oil. At least on every street car I have ever worked on. Well because the utv is a live axle with no diff this splined shaft does not have oil in it or protected by a seal. So basically, road grim, silt and water keep migrating into this area and filling up the splines. When I first saw the crap that was in there I thought my tranny was toast. Haha false alarm. The seals seal the outside of this tube. I will be putting some nice grease around the outside of these splines to help seal a little more crap from getting in there. With this info i would suggest any time you are in the area with a chance to pull your aqxles out you should! and clean the inside of the tube and put some grease in there. if I understood this design before i attempted to pull my axles out I would have soaked the area where the seal is with PB blaster as it would have loosened up the grime where the splines are

because of this I was just transferring my front diff with axles still installed to make the swap easier, but now I will be soaking, removing and cleaning my splines out on the front diff too so if I have a bad axle, the axles will come out easier

I always use this on any splines.

An anti-fretting lube would be the best for this application.

Some FWD cars will have a "jack shaft", or intermediate shaft, on the engine side axle. Typically NOT oil bath on the CV end, but is greased.

Kraut_n_Rice said:

Some FWD cars will have a "jack shaft", or intermediate shaft, on the engine side axle. Typically NOT oil bath on the CV end, but is greased.

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exactly that's why I'm putting some neo green synthetic wheel bearing grease but the above jack shaft is not typically subjected to what I'm going to be doing
I looked into that SKF stuff---I think ill get the $3,000 tub

Installed my motor and tranny at same time through the back with some nice rigging and four guys. Dropped right in. 30 days before the trip

1 week from today the ride starts. Been working non stop. I’m 90% done. Doing a 30-40 mile shakedown around my house to the back side of Camp Pendleton

I never liked the gold and orange 2017 color scheme so mine had a wrap when I bought it. It was ok but falling apart. Took all wrap off and made all frame black. Black and gold looks good. Added a street light kit. Almost ready. The coolest thing I did was add a single switch that overrides ecu for radiator and intercooler fans. When off the two lights still show me when each is on. Intercooler is green. Radiator is blue

Great updates, hope you continue while on the trail...