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Rear Diff Spline & Axle Fused Together!!!!


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Alright so my axle ripped a couple of weeks ago so I begin the axle removal. I get it off the hub very easily and every thing is going right along. I can find my 3/16 punch so I go at it with a screwdriver and get the pin to knock loose. So then I get a skinny screw dirver and try hammering it out. Well needless to say the screw driver went all the way through the pin. Long story short we get the pin out but in pieces. So i start to pull the axle off the spindle and it wont budge. Nothing at all. I look to see if there is more pin but you can see straight through the hole. When you tap on the axle there is a piece of metal that is loose and moving around in the free space of the axle/spindle. But when you push on the peice of metal it just moves to the side and you cant even see it. So we have heated it up, pb blasted it pryed at it just about everything I could think of.. Im out of Ideas so i need some from you. Let me know thanks!!

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Yeah I will get the drill bit tomarrow but there is no way to get a hammer in there and make a good hit and this is my only car as of now. My other car just went into paint today!! So any other suggestion!!!

 

remove the differantial from under need the car? shouldnt be too hard to do, 4 bolts on the driveshaft, 4 more bolds holding it up, 1 bolt on top and take off the other axle and you'll have plenty more room to work on it. best way to do it and surely get it done is take it slow and easy and give yourself the space you need.

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I've had it happen on all 4 rear axles I've taken off. 2 I got off with a Mapp Torch and a big hammer. one is still on the car, but not broken, yet (yikes) and the last from a parts car that I wanted the diff for my LSD swap. I ended up dissasembling the axle so just the cup was on the diff, removing it from the rest of the car, torching it, soaking it, and pounding on it.....nothing.

 

finally, one day after torching and pounding, the cap in the bottom came out. through which I could access the external 10mm torx bolt that holds the stub in the diff. I still have that stub, and it still has a DOJ cup on it.

 

my buddy pulled one off the hub side with an acetalyne (sp?) torch once. got it red hot, then hit it with an air chisel.

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also dont the stubs on the rear differantial come off? why not just unbolt that and take it where you got room to work on it?

 

doesnt getting things red hot affect the hardness of the metals your working with? dont want to heat anything too much thats gonna be staying on the car.

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This happened to a me with a friend's car. ON THE TRANSMISSION! Good thing we were planning on taking it out anways...it was awkward dropping the tranny with the axle still attached. What I did was heat the hole up with an oxy/acetylene torch and drove a 3/16 pin through it...that's because the roll pin was put in backwards (where the splines don't line up). I knew that the pin would heat up and melt way faster than any of the metal that belongs there.

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Alright well I got the axle cup apart and the grease sheild off!! I had no time to pull the spindle out of the diff so I got a slide hammer and heat and zep 45 and no go. The axle cup is just sitting there. So i tore apart my old axle and got teh hub side spindle and got it all put together with no axle just the spindles. I also have to drive with diff lock on or it barely moves. Will this mess anything up. Im going to take it to a Subaru shop on monday and see what they can do!! Any conerns!!

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oh jeez, I can't believe how siezed my rear axles are. i'm denting the heck out of them, does that matter? lol. am I gonna have to get new axles? if that's the case, i'm just gonna buy a whole new rear end from a junkyard and not worry about it. rear discs are better anyhow :grin: . I mentioned that to somebody at work, and they said that you had to put a different master cylinder in it too cuz the disc brakes push with a different amount of pressure than the drums do..... is this something that Subarus are immune to? lol..... thanks for any imput.

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oh jeez, I can't believe how siezed my rear axles are. i'm denting the heck out of them, does that matter? lol. am I gonna have to get new axles? if that's the case, i'm just gonna buy a whole new rear end from a junkyard and not worry about it. rear discs are better anyhow :grin: . I mentioned that to somebody at work, and they said that you had to put a different master cylinder in it too cuz the disc brakes push with a different amount of pressure than the drums do..... is this something that Subarus are immune to? lol..... thanks for any imput.

 

on EA82's the valve size in the drums and discs are virtually the same. on EA81's they are slightly different, but people swap them with no serious ill effects.

 

btw, it would be the proportioning valve....not the master cylindar that would need to be replaced.

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  • 2 weeks later...

After sucessfully doing 4 or 5 axel swaps, I've encountered this same 'fused' stub shaft and DOJ problem...

Getting the old DOJ off the transaxle was tough - I had to use a prybar and much foul verbage. (This should have been a red flag that the stub shaft splines were possibly twisted and that getting a new one on would be just as difficult - or worse, as it turns out)

I've gotten it about 1/2 the way pushed onto the stub shaft and it is absolutely fused in place. The real problem is that I can't really tap or pry it on since the large diameter portion of the rubber boot is covering the only edge of the DOJ that I can access/hit/pry on. I don't want to destroy the boot just to get the DOJ on flush.

I am going to try PB juice, heating it up, and more foul verbage. Then I'll take it to Les Schwab and have somebody with decent tools give it a try.

Does anybody know if driving the car with the DOJ only halfway on will hurt the stub shaft, DOJ or CV joint? The two problems I considered were 1) The half-axle is slightly compressed (by about 3/4 inch) so perhaps this will put more stress on the DOJ/CV joints as they go through their motions during turns and when hitting bumps. 2) Since the DOJ is only grasping the outer 3/4 inch of the Transaxle stub shaft, under acceleration it might further torque or twist the stub shaft splines.. this of course, would just further aggrivate the problem of getting the thing on at some point in the future.

Solutions:

Is it possible to access and replace just the stub shaft? (this is the passenger side of my EA-82)

I know the half-axle is good since it came off my old suby.

I also considered taking the inboard boot off. Viciously hammering the DOJ case onto the trans. Then cleaning up the lost grease, and regreasing the DOJ and adding one of those split boots to the thing.

ANy suggestions???

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Slide the real boot back, then beat the crap out of the DOJ to seat the shaft on the splines. Regrease and go.

 

Why not replace the stubshafts with straight ones? More work, but it will be done right. Although it is hard to believe the stubshaft is twisted. Are you sure about that?

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Yes! That's an even better idea - I'll just slide the current boot off enough to be able to hammer the DOJ onto the stub, then slide the boot back on and clamp it.

No, I'm not sure the stub is twisted, that was just the only idea I had as to why the DOJ wouldn't slide on. You're right though, it's probably unlikely... Perhaps the splines were compromised (dinged, dented, chipped) at some point.

The folks at Les Schwab tires suggested removing the wheel hub from the end of the axle and just hammering (carefully, with a block of wood or drift to absorb the blows, of course) the thing until it slides onto the stub all the way. I'll probably try this first before I unclamp the boot and get grease everywhere.

I'll post back when this is finished and let folks know what worked...

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Keeping all the joints lined up enough to transfer any impact to the splines could be a problem. And I am not sure that axles should have any impact applied to the ends, anyway. Proceed with caution.

 

Grease is cheap.

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