I charged into the garage... determined to R&R my CV joint boots on the drivers side.

I unbolted the CV from the gearbox, and wiped down the grease that had been slung around. Started to unbolt the CV from the outer side, and realized that I'll never be able to get it apart. It's all snuggly in the trailing arm. So... the only thing to do is pull the stub axle. Never done it before, but what the heck.

Jack the car up, pull the wheel, pull the retaining pin... a little leg muscle, and the nut spins free!

Then, things get difficult:

- rap on the stub with a mallet - no luck
- spray with PB Blaster and wait
- get a 2x4 up against the stub and start wailing. 2x4 disintegrates and I'm left with a dumb look on my face.
- start wailing on the stub itself with a hammer. Discover the joy of maybe having screwed up the threads.

So... what now? I think I need a new stub axle & castellated nut. Maybe I can chase the threads, but I kind of doubt it.

How the heck do I remove this thing without screwing anything else up?

-Rusty

BFH (as in 2 - 5 lb sledge)............It should come out. Hopefully doesn't eff up the bearing.

Need a stub & nut...just ask..I should have one.

I should have mentioned... these are /4 stub axles, not /6s.

-Rusty

QUOTE (SLITS @ May 22 2005, 01:20 PM)

BFH (as in 2 - 5 lb sledge)............It should come out. Hopefully doesn't eff up the bearing. Need a stub & nut...just ask..I should have one.

So... are you saying this is time for the application of a bigger hammer? I'll bring home a sledge from work tomorrow, if need be.

When I reassemble... is antisieze advisable?



P.S... PM on the way!

I used a puller on mine and it came right out, getting it back in is the hard part. You may wind up replacing your bearings while you are in there. I would if I went that far. But that is just me.

Just did mine. One side of the car came right out with VERY light tapping on the axle nut. The other side wouldnt' budge. I was told that if you have to beat on it with a hammer, then your bearing is NOW toast.

I used a puller and pushed my axle out and replaced the bearing.

QUOTE (skline @ May 22 2005, 01:25 PM)

I used a puller on mine and it came right out, getting it back in is the hard part. You may wind up replacing your bearings while you are in there. I would if I went that far. But that is just me.

A puller to remove it? (Trying to envision that, with little success.)

Why is installation so much more difficult?

They have to be pulled in very consistent or the bearing will seperate. If I can find the picture of the tool I used to put mine in I will post it. All it is was a allthread bar about 24 inches long with large washers and spacers to hold it in and then tighten it up and it pulls it in very nice.

rusty.. this is why you leave the nut on the threads.


you beat the piss out of the nut....and the threads survive. nuts are cheap.
stubs arent.

Mine were never that hard, but rust of the bearing race to the stub surface would be my guess. I used crocus cloth to clean the surfaces prior to reinstall and John Deere antisieze.

I also used washers and an impact gun to pull the stub thru the bearing.

Get some BRASS!!!

I used to work in a tool shop, so I guess I'm lucky here. But definitely get some brass pieces. Round stock, flat stock, etc, etc. It will be SOOOO useful you will wonder why you never had any before. The brass will get all F'ed up before the part you are "persuading" will. Thats the whole idea.

So why is it that I could mess up my bearings? I'm hammering on the stub axle... with force straight in, not on the hub.

I have a set of new rear bearings that I was saving for Elwood... I'll use them on Princess if I must.

QUOTE

but rust of the bearing race to the stub surface would be my guess.

I dont think bearings rust, I believe his hub is rusted to (the remains of) his stub axle. Ideally, a tool would exist that is a thick piece of bar stock with 2 holes at either end that cuold be bolted to the hub with a couple lug nuts and then tapped in the center for a fat ass bolt to drive the stub axle thru the hub. Barring that, I think I would get a compressor and air hammer. I'm all for replacing the bearing at this point.

BFH made of Brass works fine...... hit it, more PB, hit it some more, more PB, drink a beer, hit some more, more PB, another beer, hit, hit harder, more beer, more PB, hit it some more, hit with the beer, drink the PB, hit is some more...

Your going to ruin the bearing taking the stub axle out. That's the nature of the split bearing.

Leave the nut nearly fully engaged on the threads. Then use the BFH.

I have an extra stub axle here. If you've toasted that one then take the nut off and pound the living shit out of the stub. No sense in wasting the nut too.

Buy bearings...

At this point I always find it much easier just to drop the control arms.

In for a penny...

Rusty;

Just went through this a couple of months back. Trust us when we say that banging that hard on the stub will damage the bearing. The stub has either rusted or galled to the inner part of the bearing. In fact, it will probably be easier to remove the stub from the inner part of the bearing after the whole thing falls apart (sounds like you may be close to that point anyway.) Eric suggests taking the control arm off and I agree. You'll never get the right force on the thing if you are whackin on it at a weird angle. The arms flex and the bushings also absorb some of the shock and make some of that effort worthless. Shoot the stub with some PB blaster and let that soak, even overnight if possible. If you don't have a brass hammer, use the nut like Aaron suggests. You can't put heat on the bearing without burning up the dust shield anyway.

After you have the whole damn thing apart and have bought your new bearing, put the bearing and the stub in the freezer. Warm the trailing arm up with a torch, lightly grease the outside of the bearing and it should press pretty easily into the arm. The fit for the bearing is very snug and if you are even the slightest bit off of perfectly level it will go in cattywompus and give you grief (I'm assuming you don't have a machine press to make sure the surfaces are parallel.) Let the arm and bearing come up to room temp, take the stub out of the freezer and then follow a similar approach with the stub. Some persuasion with a drift or hammer is OK, but if you find yourself whaling away on the thing with a 5lb sledge, you will totally dick up the bearing again.

Good luck!

QUOTE

put the bearing and the stub in the freezer

I think you mean the "hub" because the stub doesn't go into the bearing.

Also... there's no way I would "ever" hammer in the hub. That will ruin the bearing for sure. They need to be pulled in, either by placing the castellated nut on the stub axle "upside down" until you can get enough of the stub axle through the hub (not the bearing) to fip it back over, or with a tool you can make with some threaded rod and a suitable socket. For the do-it-yourself tool check the PP site for a nice drawing.

Or you can follow the process right here and never leave the comfort of your own club.

The last picture in the link shows the tool I use for pulling in hubs.

Rusty, if I were there, I could have them out in like 15 minutes. Fly me out there and I will take care of it for you.

QUOTE

Fly me out there

Hey Look Everybody!! Somebody "wants" to go to Kansas!!

Anyone from the Club is welcome in my home... to visit or just to crash during a roadtrip.

Scott, it'd be great to have you out this way for a weekend!

-Rusty

QUOTE (skline @ May 22 2005, 05:35 PM)

Rusty, if I were there, I could have them out in like 15 minutes. Fly me out there and I will take care of it for you.

Make him take you to Aggyville...

QUOTE (skline @ May 22 2005, 04:35 PM)

Rusty, if I were there, I could have them out in like 15 minutes. Fly me out there and I will take care of it for you.

If ya dig yer red sparkly shoes outta the closet, put 'em on, click the heels together 3 times and ****poof****. Ya gotta take Toto with ya too!

Well, I would love to come back and see my old Alma mater but I have to go to work at the port tomorrow and hopefully get 1840 hours as quick as possible. When I said use a puller, find a large 3 or 4 claw that will fit over the hub. Then push on the middle like you are removing the hub. The hub wont come out but the stub axle will push in. You can probably rent one from a local FLAPS. I have one here and it worked great for me. When you go to put it in is where it will get tricky. With any luck, you wont have to replace your wheel bearings. It can be done, I have done it a few times.

Let me know of you need a new stub axle. I can have one there in two days for $7.70 (flat rate box).

QUOTE

Make him take you to Aggyville

Is that where they grow "Eggplants" errrrrr Aubergines?

Stubs, hubs, schlubs.

I meant to say hubs, but on my keyboard the 'st' key is right next to the 'h'.

Thanks for the good eye Eric. And you are of course right about hammering the bearing, though I think I meant the light 'tappity, tappity' style. I also like your tip about using the old bearing as a drift. That never occured to me.

I took the easy way out when replacing my rear bearings. I dropped the trailing arms and had Perry Kiehl fix me up a set with bearings, hubs and bushings already assembled. That was after I had wasted a stub axle and nut and decided I was in over my head.

QUOTE (Eric_Shea @ May 22 2005, 05:38 PM)

QUOTE Fly me out there Hey Look Everybody!! Somebody "wants" to go to Kansas!!

BTDT..... Colder than $hit in January, but Rusty is a good cook.


If you need a stub, I can send it next day air. I also have the special tool to pull and reinstall the bearings i can send too....


If you have a press at the base shop, just pull the trailing arm and take it to the press. A little hydraulic pressure will have that stub axle out in no time.

I'm really dragging my feet about pulling the entire trailing arm.

The car rides pretty nice, and I don't trust the monkeys in BFK to do a decent alignment.

Besides... ever snap one of the trailing arm mounting bolts?

I got the stub axle out!

It took one whack with a 5 pound hammer to knock it loose. Maybe it was all the soaking with PB Blaster, too. Now that I have it out, I see that there was a bit of rust holding it in place. What I don't see, however, is how my bearings can be f'd up.

It's like those little wooden Chinese dolls (no, not you, Jenny... )

My visualization of the assembly is... Bearing inside trailing arm. Hub snugly inside bearing. Stub axle inside hub. Rapping on the stub axle shouldn't have caused the bearing assembly to move.

Or is this just one of those things I won't understand and should just take on faith?

-Rusty

QUOTE (Eric_Shea @ May 22 2005, 05:49 PM)

QUOTE Make him take you to Aggyville Is that where they grow "Eggplants" errrrrr Aubergines?

No, that's where there is an abundance of intoxicated college age women...

Take our word for it. It's trash. Get a new one from www.europeanautomotive.com, something like $43 shipped to your door in two days.

Rusty....stick your hand in there and rotate the bearing....if it feels rough at all, replace it. You can also look with a light and see if the seal is disturbed.

The rear bearing on a 914 is made with 2 roller surfaces. Inside it has a split inner race. When the drive flange fits inside of it, the stub axle presses against the inboard half of the inner race. When you pull the stub axle, you probably disloged the inner race. That would cause the bearing to become loose. The only way to make sure that you don't have a bearing failure in a very short period is to replace the bearing.

Get a big assed slide hammer (O'Reilley here will loan you one. You just have to have a credit card for the security deposit) and use it to pull the hub. Most likely there will be half of the inner race left on it. You may have to have that pressed off.

Then pull the bearing retainer plate and use the slide hammer and a big thick washer to pull the bearing. Or you can crawl under and hammer it out with a big punch.

Then put the bearing back into the trailing arm (freezing it overnight will shrink it and help to make it easier to install). Bolt the retaining plate back on. Use the big assed washer and a long bolt to pull the hub into the bearing. MAKE SURE THAT YOU SUPPORT THE INBOARD END OF THE BEARING WHEN PULLING THE DRIVE FLANGE INTO THE OUTBOARD END OF IT.

Sorry to shout, but I didn't want you to miss that. The bearing will be ruined if you dont support it. What I have is a couple of big thick washers and a picece of an old ball screw from a milling machine (A ball screw is precision machined tool steel piece of all thread). Two mounting nuts from a milling machine retaining bolt package make the rest of it.

Order of parts from inboard to outboard, all hooked over the ball screw.

Big nut --Big washer --- Bearing -- hub -- big washer-- big nut.

Tighten the nuts to pull the hub into the bearing.

Remove the ball screw and the washers. Put some anti-seize on the splines of the stub axle and install it into the hub.


Hope that helps.

Good news/bad news.

Good news: The axle is in good shape. This morning I pressed off the CV. I cleaned, inspected & repacked them, put new boots on and pressed the CVs back in place.

Bad news: I know I bought a set of rear wheel bearings... but I sure as hell seem to have lost them. I hate it when I lose perfectly good parts.

I'll tear apart the garage one more time to see if they haven't grown legs or something.

More later.

Good news! I've now got my wheel bearings... let's just say they were in a garage in Des Moines, Iowa.

Oh no...let's say more. Let's say how wonderful your toolwench is for driving six hours round trip to bring you your wheel bearings after allowing you to store them in her garage for years....

On the bright side - there were lots of yellow flags in the NASCAR race so I'm home in plenty of time to watch the finish.

-Pam

Hey Pammy!


M