for the life of me i couldnt find a thread on this (that or i am the dumbest person with a keyboard). i am going to be rebuilding the front end shortly, and i also have a bad wheel bearing. i have taken apart explorer front ends (they are easy, just a nut on the end of the axle) but on my ranger, no nut. so there is a clip in there, but i just dont know where, or if there is more then one. once i know how to push the axle out of the wheel bearing i am good to go on the rest, but this is where i sit for the moment
HALP! lol

 

got a picture? it should be a nut and the end of the cv is splined to fit through the wheel bearing.

So what I always do is take the nut off the CV and tap it with a hammer to break it free. Then pop the upper ball joint out and you should be able to get the CV out. If it wont come out you will have to pop it out with a pry bar at the base of the differential keeping care of the seal.

 

no pictures at the moment. i would take some, but its cold out today.
that is basically how i do my explorer when i pull it apart. i have had it apart so many times the axle slides out. going from memory there are splines on the end of the axle, but no nut on either side. if there was i would have seen it, the one on my explorer is a 32 or 34 mm so its kinda hard to miss that lol.

 

The ranger is exactly the same

 

this really bothered me, so i went outside and pulled the tire off. low and behold what was there?......a axles nut. who feels stupid? this guy. i swore i didnt see one there before. oh well, at least now i know i can pull it apart and have no problems. and yes even with this incredibly dumb post, i do know what i am doing lol

 

haha its alright man. everybody has an off day