Long story....long. I thought I broken something catastrophically on my LSe30. Hammered the throttle leaving Tacoma Screw awhile back and heard a massive clunk. Figured diff or u joint. I had a spare diff I've been wanting to throw in (going from LSD2.93 to LSD3.73). Finally tackled it last night and in pulling the driver cv axle off the diff I found the inner joint locked solid. Welp, I think that's my culprit. Finished putting the diff in and unbolted the axle nut. Now the fun part. I can't get the axle to separate itself from the hub? I hammered the snot out of it mushroom'ing a 1/2" extension and a 5/8" solid piece of pipe. Can't get the thing to budge! P'Blaster, kroil, torch. I thought about a bolt on hub puller but at this point it may destroy the bearing and pull the hub out instead of push the CV axle out. I'm borrowing an airhammer from work but does anyone have any foolproof ideas?
In that case I normally pull the whole hub out and put it in a press. Not sure if you have one or not, but the HF hydraulic press has done fine for me. (Bolt it onto a HF moving dolly for easy mobility.)
In reply to AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) :
That's definitely an option but I'd have to pull the whole trailing arm assembly since it's not a bolt on hub. Bearing is pressed into the trailing arm, hub pressed into bearing. It's a bear. Har Har.
In reply to iansane :
Yeah, I figured it was some sort of trailing arm setup. Not super familiar with e30's but I've dealt with enough e28's and e46's. Kindof a pain, but the last one I did was on a miata hub/axle and the press took it out like nothing. No drama.
Air hammer with a round nosed bit. It's made specifically for this task.
A puller will not damage the bearings, the axle is stuck in the splines in the hub, both inner and outer inner races are pressed on the hub. No force from the puller goes through the bearings.
Air hammer did the trick. Popped out in seconds. Replaced the bearing since I was in there and it was the original almost 40 year old stocker.
In reply to iansane :
What did you use to press out/press in the bearing?
Might have to do this and I dont feel like removing the trailing arm or lowering the subframe.
A year or so ago I rented the O'Reilly hub removal tool (when I still worked there) and just never returned it. Expensive but made short work of it. Took longer to tear the brakes off than actually pull the bearing apart.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/evertough/tools---equipment/loaner-tools/brake--tire---wheel-loaner-tools/749f067e140e/rental-tools-evertough-hub-remover-and-installer-kit/ren1/67213
iansane said:
A year or so ago I rented the O'Reilly hub removal tool (when I still worked there) and just never returned it. Expensive but made short work of it. Took longer to tear the brakes off than actually pull the bearing apart.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/evertough/tools---equipment/loaner-tools/brake--tire---wheel-loaner-tools/749f067e140e/rental-tools-evertough-hub-remover-and-installer-kit/ren1/67213
Thanks for the heads-up on this tool, I was considering buying one of the OTC hub grapplers, but this looks similar and is free!
