About two weeks ago I had noticed a slight shudder from the car during right turns. I rotated the tires and inspected the brakes and suspension to discover that my outer CV boot had become dislodged, exposing the bearing. Ordered a new CV axle and put it in yesterday, which was quite the process.
In order to remove the CV axle, I needed to remove the wheel, hub assembly, and strut so I could remove the steering knuckle from the ball joint and have room to pull out the axle. It fortunately is a press-fit, so a little help from our friend the slide hammer was all that was needed to remove it, and a good shove on the metal housing (not the bearings, of course) to install the new one. Took the time to replace the hub bearing as well, since it was the last factory bearing left and I didn't want to pull a rusty hub twice.
Additionally, found out why my struts, which were "replaced" some 35,000 miles ago, are soft as bananas. They weren't. The driver's front strut's date of manufacture? 2.13.1993 :thumbsdown: :|
The car drives, but the alignment was thrown off by the strut removal. I'm getting the front wheels aligned tomorrow. I'm shipping out in eight days for Air Force BMT, I'll deal with the suspension later.
Edit: For the record, a local shop was supposed to have replaced the struts. I enjoy working on my car for this reason, I can ensure corners are not cut, or in this case missed entirely.