Got it. The CV is supposed to butt up against the back of the hub.
Not sure why it didn’t work before. Took it all apart for the 3rd time and cleaned the threads and splines for the 3rd time and put it back together.
This time I put the old axle nut on a couple turns and used a couple heavy screw drivers and pried the axle into the hub. It surprisingly slid right in with very little effort and the CV was butted up against the back of the hub. Why now???? Then put a new axle nut (couldn’t get one the other night) and it went on but with some difficulty. The Axle threads are VERY rusty. In fact there is hardly any thread on the end of the axle. Both sides were like that. Does that 17” aluminum wheel trap water in there (my 1st LH car with those wheels) ? Never noticed anything like that on the Intrepid ES’s. Anyway I suspect the old nut must have been bound up with rust (I did clean it before hand) the other night when I went way over torque but never got the CV seated. I suppose the splines could have bound up some too but there was no evidence of any damage.
Not sure why it didn’t work before. Took it all apart for the 3rd time and cleaned the threads and splines for the 3rd time and put it back together.
This time I put the old axle nut on a couple turns and used a couple heavy screw drivers and pried the axle into the hub. It surprisingly slid right in with very little effort and the CV was butted up against the back of the hub. Why now???? Then put a new axle nut (couldn’t get one the other night) and it went on but with some difficulty. The Axle threads are VERY rusty. In fact there is hardly any thread on the end of the axle. Both sides were like that. Does that 17” aluminum wheel trap water in there (my 1st LH car with those wheels) ? Never noticed anything like that on the Intrepid ES’s. Anyway I suspect the old nut must have been bound up with rust (I did clean it before hand) the other night when I went way over torque but never got the CV seated. I suppose the splines could have bound up some too but there was no evidence of any damage.