Are the boots compressed or stretched out? If they are too close it will seem like one has to stretch the axles too far to get the nuts started. Just push the spline into the wheel hub and start the nut and tighten it, if it pulls out of the Diff side the boot ends are definitely too close and you have to separate them. If the boots won’t move easy Get WD40 (or any thin oil) put the red plastic extension on it and slip it under the small boot end and give it a super small squirt of oil and work it around the ID of the boot end so it slips around easy and they will about set themselves to the right tension. (The small ends of the boots are not clamped to the shafts and may need pushed out towards each CV) I had a set once that I did not do this and upon my first drive I smelled gear oil, looked under the car and my Diff was leaking, I thought I tore a seal, here it was the hub pulled out of the Diff and was leaking oil because the shaft was not in the seal anymore, this was my first experience with DSS and their boot issues. What color boots are they blue or black? I had a set with blue boots and the boots tore after a just few hundred miles, DSS told me it happened because I didn’t set them right and they where too stretched out, told me my car must be lowered or something, we’ll it’s not. Seems they have no clue what the proper length between the small ends of the boots should be when they build them and it’s up to the end user to set them “right” but no where in any instructions does it tell you that and what “right” is. And then guess what? Torn Boots aren’t covered under warranty, I had to buy 4?boots and grease kits and do it myself or pay the shipping costs to send them back and wait weeks for their return.
So then I bought a set of GForce Outlaw Axles and they wobble in the Diff, so in changing the Diff to a brand 3.90 unit I measured the Diff side hubs and they are .002” smaller then Factory hubs and DSS hubs (which at least DSS makes that part the right size). It wasn’t the 3.70 Diff as the hubs wobble just the same in the brand new Diff. So I had two friends that bought G Force outlaw axles and I asked them to measure their hubs and turns out my hubs are smaller than theirs so there’s something up with them but GForce won’t do anything about it at the moment so I guess I’m going to have to start posting stuff about them like this is the first one. Seems I have absolutely no luck with axles. I must’ve had five or six sets of axles in this car so far, from 2 sets of Drive Shaft Shop ones (both rebuilt under warranty before their year of service was up and I sold them upon return from DSS), a set of red eye ones and now the G Force ones and each one has a different issue of some sort. I’ll post a video of the wobble the GForce ones have.
And here’s the same axles in a brand new 3.90 Diff, GForce says it’s the Diff, but I have videos of 3 sets of axles measured showing mine are smaller, BEWARE of all these companies, it’s all good when things are good but leave you hanging when they go bad. I’ll be calling them again today. Sorry to pull this off subject a bit
https://youtube.com/shorts/lXENYtTKbgk?feature=share