Haven't posted here in ages. But that's cause the Celica hasn't really had any major problems. That's a good thing

Just wanted to know if anyone has ever tried to pull the driver side axle from the C52 tranny without unbolting it from the spindle? I have a busted tranny seal, and I know the pain of pulling an axle. Just hoping I can bypass all the hard stuff and get the axle out quickly to change the seal.

If not, I guess it's time to get dirty

it would probably be harder doing it without undoing the main axel bolt lol, just undo the main axel bolt, shouldn't be too hard if you get someone to step on the brake, undo the main bolts in the strut assembly, push the hub/disc downwards and undo any other annoying bolts and it should pop straight out, then pry the inner axel out.

I've been able to pull my axle w/out unbolting it from the spindle, for the same exact reason, bad tranny seal where the axle shaft goes in. Getting it out was fine, but getting it back in is more difficult; IIRC if you loosen the control arm, it gives you enough play to pop the axle back in.

unbolt the bottom ball joint from the control arm should easily give you enough.

i just replaced this seal 3 days ago. took about 2 hours but that was because i couldn't find a decent crow bar to pop the old axle out.

after that i was pretty straight forward.

Thanks for all the help. Now I'm not even sure if I'm gonna replace it or not. I jacked my car up tonight after work and took the fill plug out of the tranny, and fluid poured out. It wasn't a cold check, but it was being pretty generous with the fluid. I also wiped off what had leaked to the bottom of the differential case, and it was caked on there pretty hard. I'm guessing this leak has been going on for awhile, but it's way too slow for me to worry about it right now. Still good to know I can do this without taking the axle loose from the spindle.