Okay...first off I'm going to start out by saying that I'm not *great* with cars. My husband is out of town for a while and I needed to replace my drivers side CV axle on my '98 Protege.

The axle was pretty tough to get out and now the new one just WILL NOT go back in! I've tried and tried but not matter how hard I push it won't go down far enough to seal and everything.

I've got it lined up correctly and there's nothing that's blocking the trans-axle case (I think that's what it's called) that I can see - the axle on the passengers side is fine.

Are there any tips and tricks that might help me out - I really need my car to be fixed so I can get to work and I've been working on this for a day and a half already!

 

WD-40 ALWAYS works wonders .

 

It sounds likeyou may have gotten the wrongnumber of splineson the new axle.
Check it against the old one to see if thespines are coarser or finer than the newaxle you have.