Driver Side Done
The cold chisel trick worked a treat to separate the inner joint from the transmission. All the other bolts fought me. Even the cotter pin on the tie rod end was a pain to remove (I didn’t rip the boot though—score), and I had to take huge swings with the sledge at the hub-to-strut bolts, even after using heat & penetrant. The control arm’s balljoint boot tore, but that was the only “casualty” of the whole process. I’ll replace both some weekend soon.
I didn’t separate Megumi’s hub & axle, but set the hub down on the control arm balljoint, inserted the inner joint into the trans and pivoted the hub in toward the car. The inner joint clicked into place—success.
From there, getting everything buttoned up was easy, and I put all the gear oil back in the transaxle and the splash shield back on.
Passenger side tomorrow.