Help! Axle removal trouble...

[sfeather11]

Ok, so I've got everything apart (almost), except I cannot for the life of me knock the axle back through the hub. The axle nut is off, the control arm bolts are out, I've PB blasted everything I can see and have mushroomed out the end of the axle trying to knock it back through. Should it be this hard?? I'm sure this is the 1st time its ever been changed, so I'm thinking it is just rusted on the splines, but damn! I think I need a bigger hammer! Has anyone else had trouble getting this thing off? Any tips or tricks? I started out by threading the old nut on the axle and beating on that to no avail. then beat on the end of the axle itself and still nothing. I even took my air chisel to the end of the axle hoping that the vibration would help jar it loose. At this point I gave up for today, liberally soaked everything again with PB, and am going to let it sit overnight. Hopefully will have better luck tomorrow...

Peace!

[mikenmel08]

I get some at work that i have to use an air hammer on...and it's a big air hammer......I've had one that i took to the local machine shop and they couldn't press it out with a 80 ton press....had to find a knuckle.....

[theluckyone17]

I think anybody in the rust belt that's dealt with axles has been here at some point. One side always pops out, easy as can be. That sets you up for disappointment on the other side.

I've gotten fairly lucky. The last sticky axle was on my wife's OBW. PB, a propane torch delicately applied (as to not torch the wheel bearings), and a 3 lbs cross pein hammer knocked it loose after a few hours. Not something I want to deal with ever again. You have my sympathies.

[sfeather11]

Success! Holy F! After reading a few posts and a few more tries last night, it finally (and slowly), broke free. I ended up taking the ABS sensor off and squirting PB directly down into the hub. I also mushroomed the end of the old axle so bad that I had to hit it with a dremel once it started to move. This was to get all the mushroomed material out off so it would fit back through the hub! Wow, the core deposit/remanufacturing guys are not going to like me! Once the axle was out, I cleaned up the hub best I could and greased up the new splines pretty good, so hope fully "next time" wont be so bad. The other end of the axle with the pin was another battle, but that was just trying to get a good angle to tap it out straight and put the new one back working upside down...

I was so happy once everything went back together that the new axle actually did fix the problem. Thanks for the input!

Peace!

[mikenmel08]

Glad to hear it

[Rizzo]

Glad to hear you got it..

Good tip on the ABS Wheel Speed Sensor!

I may cut right to that when and if I do my PA side.