Rear axles are stuck *Update*

[toybuilder]

I'm trying to retrieve an LSD from one of the local yards. I got the axle pins out, but the axles are stuck on both sides! They wont budge, I guess that they are rusted onto the stubs. I worked on it until the yard closed and kicked me out. I want to go back, but I'm out of ideas.

 

I have tried:

 

1. Penetrating oil and a crowbar

2. Penetrating oil, brass punch, and BFH

3. Heat from propane torch, brass punch, and BFH (penetrating oil is flammable!!)

 

They will not budge!

 

What next? Any ideas?

[TheSubaruJunkie]

Pry Bar??

 

Hell, just grab the rear end with everything, brakes, axles, diff and hanger. Then when all that is out, use some elbow grease to get the stub's off.

 

-Brian

[ByTheSea]

Hacksaw:D Bring extra blades:D You can saw right through the stub shafts if needed. Been there once. It sucked. And not only is penetrating oil flammable but also joint grease is flammable and smoky when heated sufficiently. Good luck!

[tjdrury]

I've gotta keep tabs on this post to see how it all pans out. I had the same thing happen when tearing down a recent parts car. Tried everything you tried (in the same order, w/ same resullts) with the rear end out of the car and finally gave up on the diff. Luckily it wasn't an LSD. Not too bad of a loss. For an LSD I'd keep trying,

[Adam N.D.J.]

It's one of those things that you just need to keep working at. I had the same problem on the Brat earlier this week, had to take off one of the rear axles to put in the other car, and the rears were stuck. I sprayed with lotsa PB, let sit a day, sprayed again, let sit another day, then heated em up, took a total of about 4 days to get one of them off.

On another note, when you put an axle in, it's is a really good idea to put a lot of anti-sieze on the splines before you put the cups on the stub. This will make it easier if you need to take it off again, also makes it easier to put it on. I did this on the car and both the rear's slip off like butter.

[the sucker king]

i hope your not talking about action auto recyclers cause that lsd is sitting in my shed now. someone had definately tried to get these axels off. only one was rusted on and had a taperred punch and part of the spring pin stuck in the stub. i dropped the diff to the ground sorta like brian said and just kept at it like by the sea said. eventually it was pounding on the axel with a BFH and prying it off with a bigass screwdriver that claimed victory over said lsd. it took about an hour.

 

i side note: this lsd was olso the topic of this thread:

http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6487

it behaved like an open dif when i first found it, but seemed fine when i went back.

 

another side note: ByTheSea: you better get back to me about that vlsd cause now i can pull this trade off without you, but i'd still like to send it your way if you want it. so be in touch, eh?

[toybuilder]

That's not the one I was talking about. Although I did see the one you are talking about at Action on Friday. It was in an old black 4 door RX, right. Tapered Craftsman punch. All I did, was clamp my vice grips onto the punch and try to hammer it out. Didn't work, and they were closing so I left. Not my punch.

 

It behaved like an open diff because the car was in gear and in 4wd, the lsd slipped rather than turn the engine over... It was fine once I shifted it out of gear.

 

Did you see the XT-6 at another yard. (They wanted $200 for all the 5-lug swap parts, too much, I think!) I'l prolly grab the engine, wire harness, and ecu, if it's still there Monday.

 

The other LSD I speak of is removed from the car with the control arms, axles, etc, still attached. I'm going back to buy the whole mess Monday morning. I'll use the LSD, control arms, and sway bar on my wagon, and sell the disc brake parts. The axles are shot.

[ByTheSea]

Hey Sucker King.

 

Good thing you hollered. I have mine on the bench. I can box it and mail it tomorrow. Box the complete VLSD minus lube and get a weight and your zip code and I'll paypal you the difference betwean mine and yours. I assume you still just want the chunk. PM me your mailing address and well get this rolling. Don't email me. My account is crap from spammers and I'm letting it overfill for now to start sending them back bad address notices.

[the sucker king]

ok you'll here from me soon.

[toybuilder]

Recovering my hijacked thread...

 

Well I finally got the axles off of the diff. I don't want to admit how long I worked on it. Air hammer did not work, not even with propane assistance. No amount of heating, prying, and hammering worked.

 

Finally, I removed the boot from the Double Offset Joint, removed the snap ring that retains the axle/ball cage assembly, and removed the axle from the DOJ cup. There is a cap in the bottom of the DOJ cup that covers the stub axle and keeps the grease in. I used a center punch to put a hole in the center of the cap and then pried it out. Now I could see the end of the stub axle inside the DOJ cup. Cool. Now, I put a medium sized wheel puller, of the 3 jaw variety, around the outside of the DOJ, pushing against the stub axle. Impact wrench on the puller, propane heat on the outside of the DOJ cup, with good solid hits from a BIG hammer, and slowly but surely victory was mine.

 

Like AdamNDJ said, next time you work on your axles, put some antisieze or grease on the stubs! I know I will. This mess came from a car as new as '89.

 

Now to work on getting rest of the the axle off the control arm side. I'm not sure how to disassemble the Bell Joint on that side. It doesn't have a snap ring like the DOJ side. The cage seems to be retained by "magic" on the BJ side. ???