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Rear axle stuck to diff


DaveT
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I have to remove the rear axle from the diff on my 4WD wagon.  Of coarse, it's stuck.  The roll pin came out fine.  How aggressive can I get with pulling / prying before I have to worry about breaking something in the diff?  I really rather not have to get into repairing that also.

 

I'm actually surprised this one is stuck, it's on my CA car, and everything else I've disassembled has been almost as good as when I first had my 1990 Loyale when it was 2 years old.

 

From looking at the FSM drawings, it looks like there is a small bolt that hold the stub into the diff.  Are these removable without dissembling the diff?  Can they be reassembled?

 

If that bolt were to snap while pulling the axle, could I get at whatever I need to by removing the back cover of the diff, or am I stuck with fully disassembling at that point?

 

 

 

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Well I'm no genius but me thinks if you shoot  a little WD 40 or spray silicon where the roll pin came out of some of it should soak into the splines.  Then some tapping and gentle prying ought to do it. Should not be any rust concerns.  Probably just a little gunk making it stick. Would be tough to get heat where it is needed but don't think it is needed anyway.  Tapping and gentle to semi aggressive prying shouldn't hurt anything.  My Daddy would always say: "If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer"!  Them components is pretty tough!  It'll loosen up eventually...

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I've heard people having success letting it soak with penetrating oil for Days. You might want to use some heat too, but be careful there is a rubber seal where the diff stub seats. Axle cups are pretty strong, so you can give some solid hits with a hammer around the cup. If all else fails, break the axle down to the cup and remove the diff stub thru the cup and find a replacement stub and axle. Had to do that once and it was a PITA

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The one I had to do immediately went well.   I found that my bearing splitter was a decent fit for it.  I used 2 grade 8 bolts to apply pressure against the diff housing, and worked it off by gradually turning the 2 bolts.   

 

I'll probably put up a web page of the whole rear wheel bearing project in a few days.

 

I just have to reassemble the brake parts and bolt the wheel back on now.

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Sounds like you got it, but for future reference....

 

 

I've fought with those many times. So bad on my Brat (before it was mine...but whatever, I was working on it), we pulled the diff with the axle still on it, and beat on it with a good size hammer to the point that we broke the stub axle off. At which point, we replaced the stub and axle, and it's still going strong, no evidence of other damage.

 

Yes, there's a little bolt that holds the stub into the diff. It requires a deep offset, external torx (I forget if it's 8 or 10mm...) socket. If that bolt breaks, I think you'd probably have to disassemble the diff to get at it, but even after breaking the stub axle, that bolt did not appear to have sustained any damage.

 

 

I later discovered that if you disassemble the DOJ on the diff side, there's a little cap in the bottom of the DOJ cup. This can be removed (in my experience, by destroying it...), and through which the stub can be unbolted from the diff. After removing it, I was able to put some serious heat on it (without worrying about damaging seals and bearings), and pound through the axle cup right on the stub with a drift so that I could salvage the stub, but the axle cup was pretty ruined.

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