About a month ago, I made an attempt at a clutch replacement, and failed miserably. One of the items i struggled with was removing the drivers side axle from the transmission. For the life of me, I could not separate the clip from inside the transmission.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for popping out the axle?

 

Rent/buy this tool:
Traditionally it is supposed to be used with a slide hammer, however I found it extremely difficult to fit a slide hammer around all the other stuff in the wheel well. So what I did is snuck the tool between the CV joint and transmission and put the end of my jack handle up against it, then hit the other end of the jack handle with a 3 lbs mallot.

 

Really important that you pull it straight out --- not at an angle. The "C" clip inside needs to be able to compress as the axle is sliding out.