I am cleaning up some axles and re-lubing cv’s
first axle, first cv popped off the half shaft with just a few good tugs per cuddyk’s youtube how to

first axle, second cv cannot get the spider and cage off the axle

started with tugging and pretty soon the balls and outer cylinder were in my hands but spider and cage still on half shaft

moved to hammer & punch working around the back side perimeter of conical washer up against the spider got some movement but slow and seemed to stop with about a 16th of an inch of the half shaft grooves still proud of the outboard side of the spider

I was spraying with wd-40 intermittently all the while

next borrowed a slide hammer and puller plate from o’reilly maybe got a little more progress but still see grooves proud of the outboard side of the was spider

I’ve soaked it over night with wd-40 and will hit it again with the puller/slide hammer this afternoon

Any other suggestions? l don’t have a torch here but I’d be hesitant to use one on the spider anyway

TIA



cjl

MAP torch. Heat is your friend for almost anything that’s stuck.
$40-50 with gas at a home store near you.

This should not have happened unless somehow the spline is galled.

Post aome pics of the cv races.

I rcommend new cv.s and axles at this point. Once done you will probably never have to mess with them again.

here’s some pics of the first one l got cleaned up and the stuck one
looks pretty rough but l really got these to clean up and have as spares
so no harm done really but would like to get them cleaned up

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

make friends with or pay someone with a shop press.
The clean one pictured looks great. Reassemble, lube and use.

way too much greasy work. buy a new set of rebuilt ones for 400 dollars and be done with it. The guy who rebuilds our cvs knows all of the tricks and does outstanding work

Replace as George suggests. Not worth your time.

If you're a doc or lawyer and your time is worth $200/hr for sure just replace them as recommended. However, if your hobby time, like mine is worth the going rate of $1/hr it might make sense to just work it out.

You've likely got a burr where the Circlip used to be that is catching the axle splines.

Push back to original starting postion. Clean up circlip groove with triangle file to make sure you have no burs obscuring the splines where it was hanging up on the 1st try. Try to remove again.

As previously suggested, a bit of heat to expand the diameter of the spider while keeping a cool, wet rag wrapped around the axle shaft as close as you can get to the spider without the rag touching the spider. That will help ensure it comes off on the 2nd try. You will have no metalurgical changes to the spider by heating it to 200-300F which will be plenty to increase the ID of the spider by a couple of thousandths relative to the OD of the axle splines to help the two parts to slide relative to each other.

It's worth it sometimes just for the therapy aspect. Nothing more satisfying than solving a problem and knowing you can do it.
That and the beer always tastes better after you have earned it

thanks for the advice all
and thanks superhawk was hopin you might chime in re heat & metallurgy
it is a hobby & one thing in a long list of things I’ve not done before so I do look forward to working through it
I’m away m-f and time is short on w/ends but I do have limited access to tools and plenty of time in the afternoons during the week so I will continue to work at it
will let you know when & how it turns out



cjl

I agree with the above
Those look like new !

Also for future knowledge
Wd40 sucks for anything but drilling
Get some Kroil in the future. You will thank me later

How considerate !
Will your new $400. items arrive with the greasy work done ?
Ask the generous supplier to grease them himself before shipping.
Don't forget to ask about return policy.

small progress
decided the slide hammer wasn’t doing any better than a hammer and punch so returned that and worked with hammer and punch for awhile
still no torch or file available but l punched it back and forth and have at least gotten it to flush

Click to view attachment

l figure at most 16 more afternoons & I’ll have it free!



cjl

I just did this with brand new LWB 911 axles and CVs. Was cheaper to buy as units than just the CVs... for using sway-a-way axles.
Put a puller on the end and tensioned. Bent a 2 foot piece of 1.25 inch tubing to about half inch at one end. Smacked with hammer around the spider in a few spots. One real difficult, 2 were difficult, 4th came off easy. Production tolerances?
All the CVs float fine on the new axles.

If you have an air chisel you might try that against the shaft using the pointy tool. Sometimes it works great. Other times it seems kinda feeble, and you can hear the resistant part snickering in the background.

ha! oh l can already hear it’s snide comments behind my back
but l will get there