One of the beauties of Vanagon rear axles is ..
you just take 'em out ..
but undoing 6 CV joints screws on each end of each axle.

no need to disassemble *anything* else at all.   Very nice. !

the 6 mm allen screws can be a pain ..
namely in very tight and easily round out when you go to unscrew them.
( one thing that helps immesnsely is to give each one several very hard
whacks right on top of them with a good ball peen hammer and a
drift..that 'wakes up' the threads considerably so they unscrew more
easily. )

and ..
preferred is to use the upgraded 12 point CV joint screws going back
together..
they take a special tool...but they are made out of harder material and
rarely ever strip out.

while we're at it ..
I put in more grease than the stock specified amount. I have seen *many*
fairly dry CV joints after a while.

I havn't read their article for a while..
there are many CV joint tricks like swabbing end-for-end or side to side
so they drive the other way.
If you take an old one apart you'll see the balls wear out a spot on the
inner part from always driving that direction ..if it's a manual trans
vanagon and you can swap the axles side-to-side and end-for-end ( I
think that's it ) you can make them drive the other way.
All I ever do is replace very loose CV joints with Lobro German ones ..
if they don't have a lot of play in them ..
I keep them in service.
In my experience the inner ones wear more ( from being hotter, being by
the trans, is my suspecion on that one ) ..I put the newer or tighter
ones inboard by the trans ..and the less new ones out by the brakes.

have fun !
Scott
www.turbovans.com

On 3/15/2012 2:03 PM, Bryan Feddish wrote:
> Thanks, that is what I am looking for.
>
> So am I reading this correctly?  I don�t need to take off the brake drum, etc.?
>
> Thanks,
> Bryan
>
> From: John C...
> Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 4:23 PM
> To: B Feddish
> Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
> Subject: Re: Rear Axle replacment
>
> Excellent write up from Van Cafe;
>
> http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_16_9/cv_joint_maintenence.html
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 8:25 AM, B Feddish<uprightbassghost@hotmail.com>  wrote:
>
>    After I re-seal the gas tank I�d like to finally put in that rear axle that�s been sitting in my garage.  It�s for my �83.5 Westy.  I know there was a write-up on this job but I cannot seem to find it.  Not sure if I want to tackle the job myself, with ensuing tongue in cheek video, or have someone else do it.
>
>    Thanks,
>    Bryan
>
>
>
>