i went to take the hub assembly off of an extra axle i have and i took the 3 bolts out of the back side and when i pulled it out the whole axle shaft came out with it. do i have to take the big axle nut off the end to remove the hub assembly? thanks

 

Take the nut off and if you could put the shaft back in the axle and put the bolts loosely back in the hub. Then tap the end of the shaft with a hammer. Just don't seat the hub assy all the way in.

 

your probably gonna need a hub socket

 

36mm hub socket and an impact can take that off while the hub is off the jeep.
otherwise you may need to put it all back on and maybe put in 4lo to lock up the axle so you can get a 3 foot breaker bar on the ratchet to break that nut free. i don't like doing it this way, it's hard on the gears.
or you can put a wheel on it without the hub cap thing and put it back on the ground so you can break that nut free.

however you decide to do it, good luck.

 

When I did mine, I had a friend hold the brakes so it would not put a huge load on the diff gears. The axle nut on mine was rust welded on. Took heat, pb, 3/4" breaker bar and a 5 foot cheater with me hanging off the end for it to finally break loose. Nothing like a six hour hub change. haha.

 

Sounds like you are working with an UN-mounted axle. if this is the case you will need to lock the stub axle in a vise. That 36mm nut is torqued to about 150#.

 

when i did mine i just put a big ol wrench in the open area around the u joints and cranked it till the wrench butted up on the knuckle and they popped loose pretty easily like that, may not be the ideal method but when your u joints are crap anyways aint too much you can damage