Axle welded to hub. What are my next step?

[RossY]

Ok, so my axle is stuck in my hub. i have tried everything from pb blaster soaking over night, heat, sledge, and even a press. This thing is NOT coming off.

I even broke down and took it to a mechanic who was also unable to get it off. My question now is what else am i going to have to break, remove and replace to get my axle out and how should i go about doing this?

 

[Strm Trpr]

Remove the entire knuckle with the outer CV and hub only.
Take it to a mechanic, or if you have access to a oxy/acetylene torch and a 3lb sledge hammer you're all good.

Place said knuckle in a vise and allow PB Blaster to penetrate down thru the splines, flip and repeat.

Please use the 4 screws to hold the hub square in the knuckle so you don't damage the bore where the hub seats in the knuckle, or all of this will be for nothing.

Flip it over and reposition the knuckle in the vise so the outer cv can fall out after you beat the living shit out of it with the 3lb sledge hammer, kinda like this

Heat the hub up nice and red hot.

Then have at it with the sledge hammer.
Oh, and after you turn the axle tip into a mushroom, use a cut-off grinding wheel on a die-grinder and cut the tip off.

Then reheat, and repeat the beating.

It will break the rust loose, trust me, this is how I witnessed my rust welded POS get broken loose.

When you get a new axle from raxles.com, please use copious amounts of anti-sieze on both inner and outer splines of the new hub and axle.
Otherwise, you'll be doing this again next time you need to remove your axle.

 

[SBR Joe]

Remove the entire knuckle with the outer CV and hub only.
Take it to a mechanic, or if you have access to a oxy/acetylene torch and a 3lb sledge hammer you're all good.

Place said knuckle in a vise and allow PB Blaster to penetrate down thru the splines, flip and repeat.

Please use the 4 screws to hold the hub square in the knuckle so you don't damage the bore where the hub seats in the knuckle, or all of this will be for nothing.

Flip it over and reposition the knuckle in the vise so the outer cv can fall out after you beat the living shit out of it with the 3lb sledge hammer, kinda like this

Heat the hub up nice and red hot.

Then have at it with the sledge hammer.
Oh, and after you turn the axle tip into a mushroom, use a cut-off grinding wheel on a die-grinder and cut the tip off.

Then reheat, and repeat the beating.

It will break the rust loose, trust me, this is how I witnessed my rust welded POS get broken loose.

When you get a new axle from raxles.com, please use copious amounts of anti-sieze on both inner and outer splines of the new hub and axle.
Otherwise, you'll be doing this again next time you need to remove your axle.

If following these steps (really the only option you have at this point) be ready to replace the wheel bearing at the same time. The heat along with the hardcore beating tends to bust them up pretty bad.

Joe

 

[JWoodley]

Drop the front suspension and take it to a machine shop and have it pressed out.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Yea and after you somehow get that out, be ready for another pain in the ass trying to press those bearings in as well. Good luck man. I remember this oh too well.

James

 

[absolute_DSM]

Yea and after you somehow get that out, be ready for another pain in the ass trying to press those bearings in as well. Good luck man. I remember this oh too well.

James

Were 2gs, we dont press bearings in, we bolt hubs in.


Heres the quick fix - and most likely what itll come down to.
NOTE - Youre going to ruin the outer axle cup and the bearing with this technique.

1. Pull the spindle with the axle still connected.

1. Get a torch and torch it all out.

2. Grab a beer.

The 97 I got was from NY, just as bad as yours sounds. I had to do this to both the fronts already. A press, heat, PB blaster... nothing would get that out. Rust weld won that battle.

With enough effort and sweat.... the torch will come out.


No offense to Strm, but both of our solutions come down to the same parts being needed to be purchased with a lot less headache and work my way.

 

[RossY]

I planned on replacing my wheel bearing anyways so at least that works out.

please use copious amounts of anti-sieze on both inner and outer splines of the new hub and axle.
Otherwise, you'll be doing this again next time you need to remove your axle.

You know in between furiously hitting my axle with a sledge and cursing aloud for the neighbor kids to hear, I pondered how all of this could have been avoided if this had been done in the first place. Then i realized it was a dsm and laughed to myself...

Anyways, thanks for the pointers guys. I'm going to try and get time to do this during the weekend and I'll try and post back with questions and/or results.

 

[absolute_DSM]

NOTE - This is the extreme of what can be done but is very effective. The hub/bearing will be melted along with the end of the axle.

The Goal - keep the spindle and the hub bolts intact while removing the end of the axle and the hub/bearing itself with the means of an oxy torch

In reference to the image below -
You want to take a torch and cut away the bearing/hub/end of axle. If you work from the outside in you can cut away the hub without touching/distorting the spindle.
If you dont come from the backside of the spindle, you shouldnt do any harm to the bolts.

 

[Big28 2gFWD]

you could always drop the entire hub assembly. Disconnect all the compenents, and just pop the axle from the casing. I just had to do this after an hour of trying to pry from driver side axle from the hub, shoulda thought of it sooner, it would of saved me alot of time

 

[wishihadatalon]

I agree with Absolute DSM. I had the axle break on my old 1g. I had it in on the hoist and we did everything we possibly could, but nothing worked. It took 1 day just to get the castle nut off. After we pulled the axle and hub off of the car, we tried a press. We ended up with 14 tons of pressure and a red hot glowing hub and it still wouldn't move. In the end I paid over $500 in new parts just to drive my car again .

A little advise. When you put the car back together, do not skimp on grease or anti-seeze. I do the whole spline portion as well as the part of the cup that mates up to the hub. I also put a little anti-seeze on the threads for the axle to make sure that the nut will come off again.

 

[RossY]

you could always drop the entire hub assembly. Disconnect all the compenents, and just pop the axle from the casing. I just had to do this after an hour of trying to pry from driver side axle from the hub, shoulda thought of it sooner, it would of saved me alot of time

So wait, its possible for me to just remove the axle from the outer axle case(the green case with the boot on it) without removing the whole axle assembly from the hub/knuckle?

I think i'm a bit confused, could someone explain this in a little bit more detail as i'm not too familiar with this area of my car.

 

[housegsx]

You need a hub puller.

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[squeak104]

You are probably going have to do what absolute DSM said and burn it all out. I had to do the same on my girlfriend's talon. Other than a torch another more clean way to burn it all out is an arc gouger. It was what we used on her bearing. Essentially it is an arc welder but has compressed air pushing behind it to blow away all the slag. Very Very clean operation (except the floor of course). Some of the slag blew on to the rotor we couldn't get off and it chipped right off with a screwdriver. My friend owns a welding shop and he had one so we traded labor for him to do it.

 

[crazy_skier]

I had the same problem. I took apart the whole set up and had a welder friend cut the entire wheel bearing out. Make sure to use lots of anti seize on the axles when re-installing everything. I also put anti seize between the wheel hub and the knuckle and just made sure that the bolts were to the proper torque and did not have any on. When I had to drop stuff later that year, it came apart like I assembled it 10 minutes before

 

[wret]

You guys that had to resort to extreme measures (torches and sledge hammers); did you use a hub puller as pictured by housegsx (above)?

 

[RossY]

You guys that had to resort to extreme measures (torches and sledge hammers); did you use a hub puller as pictured by housegsx (above)?

Actually i didn't use that, but i plan on renting one from autozone this weekend to give it a try. However, i honestly doubt it will work if i couldn't pound it out with heat and a sledge.

I asked this before but didn't really get any response. Is it possible to just leave the outer axle housing (the green thing with the axle boot attached to it) rust welded to the hub and merely pull out the bearings inside the outer housing? If this is possible i would try this first as i really have no other reason to take/break everything apart.

 

[housegsx]

The hub puller is the best tool, but often used as a last resort for some reason. It works great. Just put an old crown nut at the end of the axle threads to help prevent mushrooming of the axle.

 

[wret]

They are not that expensive, so I bought one, but I understand the place to rent one is a truck supply/parts shop not a regular auto parts store.

I've asked this question before but haven't yet got any feedback. It sounds to me that the people that have the hardest time have not tried the puller, but believe that due to their struggles, such a simple tool could not work. These tools are not like your average gear puller. They have a one-inch diameter shaft and can generate some serious force. Then, after you get the thing torqued to the point it seems like somethings got to bust somewhere, there's no reason you can't give the bolt a love tap with your BFH and jar things loose.

 

[h8r]

The hub puller is the best choice.. With a Hammer you are only freeing one side (the side you are hitting) making the opposite bind. The hub applies pressure evenly. Much like Harmonic balancers that are pressed on, a Puller works great! Also I wonder if Slide hammer could somehow help. The key is even pulling pressure.

 

[Big28 2gFWD]

Hub puller is an excellent option. However, what I was stating earlier, and I think what you want elaborated on was this: Remove the entire brake assembly, leave the caliper connected to the brake line, and prop or zip tie it up. Drop the LCA's (2 bolts, disconnect tie rod ends, disconnect the shock perch (cant think of proper name for it, its shaped like a ptchfork withut the centor prong, and your shock sits in it.) disconnect upper control arm, and your entire hub assembly should eb swinging freely, you can pop the axle out from its casing(trans side) same way you would if ir were properly dosconnected from the hub. good luck!!

 

[absolute_DSM]

You guys that had to resort to extreme measures (torches and sledge hammers); did you use a hub puller as pictured by housegsx (above)?

Honestly, I didnt. But I cant see that doing anything different with a my rust welded axle than a giant press.

Really, I wasnt complaining when I had to cut the axle and bearing out. They were both going to be replaced anyways.

 

[wishihadatalon]

Honestly, I didnt. But I cant see that doing anything different with a my rust welded axle than a giant press.

Really, I wasnt complaining when I had to cut the axle and bearing out. They were both going to be replaced anyways.

We could actually see the knuckle starting to bend when we put all that pressure on mine. That is when we decided to just get new stuff. I really wish that they would have just torched out the hub and bearing, new knuckles are expensive.