Hi, having problems removing the left hand drive shaft from my abarth 2.4 - is it retained in the gearbox by a circlip - as i have tried every thing to remove it - any suggestion and help would be appreciated.
Thank you Alan.

Hi if there are no Allan bolts its normally a sort of circlip it's like a sprung circlip what you have to do is get a nice big tyre leaver get it behind the drive shaft and push it should pop out but have a drip tray under as gearbox oil will leak out and some times you will need to replace the clip and top up the gearbox oil when done and get the correct one as there are quite a lot of different ones and it must be correct hope this helps

I agree with Ady, but you might also need to turn the shaft while levering at the shaft and you should find a spot where it pops out easily. It can take a while sometimes so just be patient and don't overdo the heavy hand as you could cause damage - a gentle but firm pull on the lever should do it (do not use a hammer or stong jerks!)

Further to the above, keep persevering with efforts to pop it out - it will pop out.

The first one I did, I cut the boot clip off and removed the inner joint, boot, and shaft together leaving the cup on the gearbox. I don't recommend this - the semi-fluid grease makes a mess, takes ages to clean out properly, and I replaced it with the wrong type of grease by mistake (I put in molybdenum disulphide CV grease) so I'm probably playing a waiting game for when the joint wears out.

So, leave the joint intact and pry the shaft out of the diff as described above - much better than what I did

-Alex