I just finished cutting the axle flush with the housing. Next I'm going to pull the seal and attempt to destroy the bearing and pull parts of it out. What a pain...
CK5
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97 King Cab DS-Ton build - Rock Jock 60 and shaved 14
- Thread starter r3dd0g
- Start date
I just finished cutting the axle flush with the housing. Next I'm going to pull the seal and attempt to destroy the bearing and pull parts of it out. What a pain...
If it comes down to that I'd just take a chop saw to the axle tube and cut off the bearing part as well as the end of the axle. That way I could at least recover the ARB.
Time for a Currie 9 inch.....
I was talking to a friend last night and he gave me another good idea that would also be a last ditch effort but would save the axle... Cut the end off with the axle, then sleeve it and weld it back on.
I have the hole drilled out to 11/16" and my drill bits aren't wanting to go any bigger. I think I'm going to break out the oxy acetylene rig and heat the piss out of it and see if I can get it to move a bit further.
Now I have a time crunch, I was asked to do recovery for the Dirt Riot event in Congress this weekend. Good thing I don't have a job right now
I have the hole drilled out to 11/16" and my drill bits aren't wanting to go any bigger. I think I'm going to break out the oxy acetylene rig and heat the piss out of it and see if I can get it to move a bit further.
Now I have a time crunch, I was asked to do recovery for the Dirt Riot event in Congress this weekend. Good thing I don't have a job right now
I managed to destroy the bearing so it's not binding there anymore but it still won't budge... I'm guessing I twisted the splines so now it won't move through the spider gear. On to find a fix for that now. Good to know all the work I've done up to this point was for nothing.
I finally got it apart, I'll post pictures of the carnage later. Now I have a ton of cleanup to do to get all the dremel cutoff wheel pieces and powder and metal shavings out of the diff. I also need to pick up new bearings and seals for the axle...
What fun!
What fun!
y5mgisi
1 ton status
Crazy!
Did the ARB survive?
Martin
Martin
Yes the ARB survived, I had to completely disassemble it to clean out all of the cutoff wheel debris though. I also found that even though the ring gear bolts had red locktite and safety wire, they were all loose. I don't know what it is about 12 bolts and 4.56:1 gears, but the damn ring gear bolts won't stay tight.
I changed up my procedure a little bit for reassembly this time. I heat the ring gear up to 250°F so it slides on easy and I can line up the bolts. This time I let everything fully cool before I did the locktite and final torque of the bolts so maybe that will help
.Either way, this axle has a limited lifespan under the truck. This was way too much work just to replace an axle shaft.
Here's a few pictures of the process and axle shaft... First the wasted time part, I cut the flange off so I could get to the seal.
Then I attempted to drill out the shaft to make it easier to bend to get it to go through the bearing, I even tried heating with a torch and finally busted out the bearing.
This is the window I had to work through to cut up the end of the axle to get the C-clip off. You can see some of the cutoff wheels laying around. This is the final shot right after I got the c-clip off.
Here's a shot of the twisted end of the shaft.
And a final shot of the mess I made working for 10+ hours to get the stupid bent/twisted shaft out.
Then I attempted to drill out the shaft to make it easier to bend to get it to go through the bearing, I even tried heating with a torch and finally busted out the bearing.
This is the window I had to work through to cut up the end of the axle to get the C-clip off. You can see some of the cutoff wheels laying around. This is the final shot right after I got the c-clip off.
Here's a shot of the twisted end of the shaft.
And a final shot of the mess I made working for 10+ hours to get the stupid bent/twisted shaft out.
Stomis
Professional Amateur
Ummm wow. Did you try a slide hammer?
So whats the next axle 
wetoolowdingbangow
1/2 ton status
The axle had to go in to remove the c-clip, not out.
It's all back together minus gear oil (waiting for the RTV to set up a bit). What a pain.
Stomis
Professional Amateur
I used to be an RTV guy, but for the price of a paper gasket, I have converted. I have yet to ever have trouble with one, and they are so much easier to clean up.
Martin
I "shaved" the bottom of the 12 bolt a bit so there really isn't much room left for a paper gasket. I use "the right stuff" and it cleans up easy when you use a wire cup brush on an angle grinder 
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