I have a '96 Dodge Ram 2500 4X4 with an axle lying in my driveway.
I removed the axle on the passenger side to install new U-Joints, this all went surprisingly well. My problem is that I can't slide the axle back in the way it came out. It will go in to within an inch and a half or so, but there is something solid stopping it from going any further. I can feel the axle (it's 2 pieces by the way) go into what I think are the seals, then maybe an eighth of an inch more, but that's it. I thought maybe the spline was just not lining up correctly, but after roughly 478 attempts, I figured the odds would be in my favor of accidentally aligning them.
I don't want to beat on the axle because I don't want to damage the internal spline or the seals. What can I try?
Truck is a 1996 2500 4X4 with the heavy duty front end, gas powered V8. The axle slid out easily, and I marked the top of the axle and the relationship between the axle halves in the hopes that if done in reverse life would be good.
TIA Jim