Left Front Axle

[johnp]

Hi All;
First post, long-time lurker: I have a '93 MX-3 automatic I replaced the left front axle on; made the install and the car ran great just for a bit, then got the same heavy grinding noise I heard when I first replaced it. Did I not set the axle in all the way? The Chiltons says to just install the new axle back in it's hole with the retaining clip facing up, which I did - but did it not go in all the way? It sounds like the splines onthe shaft are not engaging. The car WILL run intermittently Forward, but the grind comes back; Reverse, it grinds too. Did I just fry the replacement parts As well? How do you get it in there firmly, and how do you KNOW it's in there??

I noticed when I was fitting the new one there appeared to be a shiny metal shaft transversing the axle hole down deep inside it; does this shaft need to be pressed/ pushed out of the way for a decent install? What am I doing wrong?

-John

[mitmaks]

how do you remove retaining ring? Im having trouble taking mine out as I'm typing.