Axle replacement (Hub removal)

[bchcky]

[glow=red,2,300]Updated, formerly about hub removal, see bottom of page[/glow]
soooooo, i was in the process of putting in the u-joint axles that i bought from bob this weekend. pulled the front wheel off, brakes off, rotor off, hub time....

pull two of the three bolts off from behind the hub assembly (96 zj, front drivers side btw). look for the head of the third one, nowhere to be found, the end of the bolt, that comes through the outside with the threads is still there, but absolutely no head, so nothing holding that third bolt in really. so my thinking was, as long as i pull this hub off straight, i should be all set. didnt want to try to wedge a 4x4 in there and do the steering wheel jerk method cause that would pull it off crooked, and with that bolt in there, who knows if it would work out.

so anyways i rented a hub puller from auto zone this morning (borrowed really, cause i didnt break anything on it, so i get all my money back, free rentals are sweet). hooked it up, started turning it, its really tough, hub is lodged in there good, all of a sudden it starts getting easier, sweet!! then i realize its only so easy because the hub assembly is now in two pieces. awesome, a sealed assembly is now in two pieces on my axle.

i ended up pulling it completely apart, i figured if its already coming apart this far, that much left on it is not going to help me pull the remainder of the hub off, not enough keeping the two pieces together to pull with any sort of power.

so i've been sitting in my garage for the past half hour pounding what's left of the hub with a BFH, swearing at it, and dousing it with wd-40 and other compounds. NOTHING. it wont even budge. it doesnt even budge to the point where i'm thinking "ok, so my only problem now is the half a bolt still stuck in there." that right now, clearly isnt the issue, the whole thing is just sealed to the dirt shield which is holding onto the axle.

so after that long rant, anybody have any ideas??? i'm going up to try wedging a chisel in there with lots of profanities, tried with a screwdriver already, but its a monster one, so i couldnt get enough leverage in the wheel well to hit the screwdriver in, i'm hoping with a shorter chisel, i might get it. but short of that working, i'm open to just about anything right now.

[ZAEDOCK]

The unit bearing is toast anyway, so heat the spindle with MAP gas. Combined with the BFH, you should be able to get it off.

[Tooch]

Well, you already too my idea of swearing at it for a while.

But, on a serious note, i would just use the chisel and be careful while you do it because you don't want to dammage anything else. Also, i know they make a de-sealer you can buy at autozone which is suppsoed to eat through rust and seperate pieces stuck together like that. It's kind of like WD-40, but it's really heavy duty.

Don't quote me but i think it's like a liquid form of white grease.

[bchcky]

CHISEL AND BFH COME THROUGH WITH COMMENTARY THROUGHOUT. and miraculously, all my fingers are intact, and still wrapped in skin.

[Tooch]

Yes, but are they twice hte size as normal or are they a standard finger size?

[SPYDER]

similar thing happened to my friend earlier when he pulled his hubs...they where stuck in the knuckles...not even in air hammer could budge them...so we undid the axle retaining nut and pushed the axle shaft in a little bit and used a 3 jaw puller and they poped right out. now i have them as trail spares if i need them.

[bchcky]

so i replaced the axle shafts, no sweat right? yeah, after all the yelling and stuff, its done. or so i thought.

now with the new shafts in, when i'm at full lock, either right or left, the car bucks as its moving forward. slight turns there's nothing, but full lock, it feels like i'm riding a bull. what could it be? i did go from tone ring shafts to non, but i doubt that is the issue, i just figured i'd share, just incase someone did think this has something to do with it.

[bluerocket]

Could be that the steering stops on your knuckles need adjusting. Possibly they are set to allow tighter turning since it was designed for CV shafts. Its also possible you need the tone rings thinkness to line things up. How thick are the original tonerings?

[bchcky]

after so many people, both on this board, and on nagca suggesting that i get shafts without tonerings to get rid of the ABS, and not one person mentioning this as a potential issue, i really find it hard to believe that the lack of a tone ring would cause this type of problem.

[xjma]

are you in 2 wheel drive or is that one of the ZJs with the damn Tcase where you either have AWD or 4wd?? If so, it's the real Ujoints that are the issue. did you replace both of the bearings with new ones?

[bchcky]

yeah, it was suggested i try taking out my front driveshaft and seeing if the problem stops. if so, i guess i gotta switch back to the CV's until i do a t-case swap.

[xdgedgex]

its got to be the ujoints with awd. mine did it to. just adjust your steering stops

[bj-666]

if you back the bolts that hold the hub slightly and hit them with a hammer it will pop the hub right off that way you don't have to worry about splitting the unit hub and damaging it.