ugh. Today didn't go well automotive wise. The sun came out around 2pm, and I thought I'd go ahead and swap that axle that has the torn CV boot on the Monkey car. Turns out, the axle nut was mostly rounded off. No getting it to budge, even with Paul Blaylock and me both grinding sockets to fit and doing every imaginable thing to turn it. Oh well, drilled holes in the nut, broke 3 drill bits doing it, and beat on it until it split apart and came out the hard way. Hey, at least the axle was now liberated. Got my brand-spanking new AutoZone axle out of the box - looks pretty much like a shiny new version of the old one. splines line right up, bolts right up, but it seems about an inch too long at the diff. Huh, that's weird. Did the diff move? What the... took the axle back out and laid it out right next to the old one. a whole inch longer. Called Autozone, gave them the part number on the box. Yep, they either ordered or the supplier shipped the wrong thing - an E46 axle?!? What's weird is they are pretty much IDENTICAL except the E46 being slightly longer. This could really be more of a problem for the E46 owner who puts E30 axles in the car, as that would bolt up just fine, then likely fall apart catastrophically. Good to know.
