CV pain

I'm having a heck of a time replacing a CV. I've seen it done before in person and also read a few tutorials, but my replacement is not going smoothly.. A few questions:

It was extremely hard to pop the CV out of my diff. Slide hammer and crow bar at the same time and after many curse words it finally popped out. And to my amazement when I removed it NO fluid came out. Is this normal? The last time I watched someone replace my CV a lot of fluid came out. And yes, the diff fluid is at correct level.

When I went to put the new CV in, it didn't want to go. I gently jiggled it around to get the teeth aligned but that darn clip did not want to budge. I finally tried to bend the clip so it would be able to slide in easier but that didn't seem to help easier. A thread on TTora mentioned hammering it in from the other side, so I did that and it finally worked. Only problem now the threads on the other side are jacked up and I can't get the axle nut to thread on. D'oh!!!

I got another CV and am going to put it in tomorrow.. Hopefully it goes a lot smoother and I end up being able to thread on my axle nut and torque to spec when all is said and done.

 

If you have to "hammer it in from the other side" you should use a block of wood between the hammer and the axle to prevent the threads from being damaged.