Rear axle

[Eleven]

I am starting pull apart my diff to see if I have bolt troubles. to move out the axles from the diff, do I remove the large nut inside the wire wheel hub or the small ones on the sheet metal cover behind the brakes? Or both? Also, what is the size of that nut, I have to buy a socket, would rather just buy one,
1 1/8? Thanks! I know its been asked a million times but my search query always seems to be just wrong...

 

[RootesRacer]

To get the axles out, you have to remove the bolts that attach the brake backing plate to the axle case.

At that time, the axles can be pulled provided the brake lines are removed from the slave cyls.

Unfortunately, to put it all back together, you really need the hubs off since there are gaskets on both sides of the brake backing plates, the inners of which cannot be replaces without the hub removal.

Therefore I leave it to you to determine if you want to remove the hubs first, or to send the axles with the plate trapped onto it to a machine shop and hope they can separate the hubs without damaging stuff.

 

[Eleven]

Thank you, I did that, but the axle seems to want to stay put. I take it that I now put some pressure on it (pry bar, etc) to get it to release?

 

[Derek]

A slide hammer works really well for this, they pop right out.

Derek

 

[phatt]

You need a hub puller. Sunbeam Specialties used to have one they let out for the cost of the shipping both ways. Give Rick a call tomorrow and see if he still has it. Paul

 

[Eleven]

Crap.
Since I scrapped a piece of my finger off when my wrench slipped, was hoping the solution was to take my 5 pounder and beat s__ out of it. Is what I normally do and is why after a job I have lots of new parts.
Okay, will try the slide hammer first and make up a puller if that doesn't work. You sure that the sledge is not in the WSM??

 

[Derek]

You have 2 issues here. The slide hammer will pull the axles, as a unit or with the hubs popped loose and held on with the nut. You MUST have a hub puller or take the axle/hub assembly to a shop to separate the two. The hubs are pressed to the axle tapers and tend to get really on there. It took me 5 days of pressure and hammering on a hub puller to get my right side off, the left was better but not by much. My axles came out easily.

Best of success Derek

 

[Tom H]

Tracy, You only need the slide hammer puller to get the axles out. I did not need a hub puller and did not need to remove the hubs from the axles. Once you pull the axles you will see that you do not need to pull the hubs, unless you need to replace the bearings.

Tom

 

[Nick Farrow]

I'm going to be tackling the same job soon - will a slide hammer attach OK to the wire wheel hubs?

Cheers
N

 

[Eleven]

I'm going to be tackling the same job soon - will a slide hammer attach OK to the wire wheel hubs?

Cheers
N

Let you know, will be trying it tomorrow. Am wondering if I screw on the spinners and pull on those. Not sure if I would damage them or not. Just bought a hammer last night, have to look it over and see how to attach it.

 

[Nick Farrow]

I'm sure I read somewhere that an alternative method to the slide hammer is fitting an old spare wheel and hitting it with a hammer until the shaft comes out - that's what I was planning on doing!

 

[agmason54]

Tracy,
Here is a simple backyard trick I used 'back in the day'.Let the weight of the car at the rear axle rest on a jack stand or block.Assuming you removed the brake line from the wheel clyinder(not the slave)and the row of bolts are removed you can take a small chain and wrap it around the hub and pound a stake(a junk axle works great) in the ground for the other end of the chain to attach to.Pound the stake in the ground at an angle so the chain will tighen.When the chain is tight jump on it. It worked for me.Some may laugh but at least I know the difference between a slave and a wheel cylinder.Don't beat on the hubs they are like butter.Any shop should be able to break it down for you.My guy at NAPA does mine for free
Chow...
Agm

 

[todd reid]

I would not recommend pounding on the spinners. I would try to attached your slide hammer to the threaded holes in the hub that the brake drums bolt to. You may need longer bolts.

 

[Eleven]

Thanks all! Got the axles and the diff out. Bought a slide hammer from harbor freight, picked up some 6 inch long 3/8th bolts with washers and nuts. Feed these through the brake drum holes (crossing fingers I haven't buggered the threads) and had at it. Not the easiest job but the axles came out with some swearing and banging.
First, my thanks to all who helped with their tips and experience, made the whole thing much easier.
Second-A HUGE Thanks you to those of you who insisted that this crappy job is a must do. I found one bolt missing (found the body, not the head or tab) and several loose. If I had ignored this, it would have disinitigrated when I least needed it to. So again, cannot thank you all enough!
Now I need to find new bolts, if anyone has some or a good source, am all ears.
THANKS ALL!!!!!

 

[Eleven]

Update; Got the diff bolts all out and replaced, unit back in the car. 8 bolts in the gear, all loose. 5 broken, 3 not broken. The unit was held together by 3 loose bolts...obviously way over engineered with 8!

 

[Nick Farrow]

What was your reason for removing the diff? Was it because it was noisey? Mine is really quite loud and my intention is to replace it, but it now I'm hoping it could just be that the bolts on the crown wheel are loose. I suppose I'll have to crack it all apart to see!

 

[Eleven]

What was your reason for removing the diff? Was it because it was noisey? Mine is really quite loud and my intention is to replace it, but it now I'm hoping it could just be that the bolts on the crown wheel are loose. I suppose I'll have to crack it all apart to see!

Several reasons. The diff was a little noisy but really you had to listen to hear it. I had a persistant clunk that I could not sort out and most of all, this web site has story after story of broken and loose bolt. My neighbor in the next city south, RootesRooter apparently had his sieze at speed!!
It is not easy as the fit on the casing to the axle housing is very tight. I had a dickens of a time getting it refitted but once it is off, it is very easy to do the bolt replacements. If the clunk is still there....

 

[Gumby]

Some advice for anyone changing or checking the ring gear (Crown Wheel) bolts. remove the old bolts (all of this done one at a time), blow out the hole so it's clean with now debris in it. Take like a 5 inch bolt of the correct thread pitch 3/8- 24 as I remember), and count the number of turn of the bold from the initial engagement, in until the bolt bottoms out in the ring gear hole. Note the number of turn it took to bottom out. Now with the new grade 8 bolts you are going to use, thread one in that same hole and count how many turns it goes before getting tight. It needs to be a 1 to 2 turns less than the long bolt. If it's the same count as the long bolt, then the new bolts are bottoming out in the hole, rather than securing the ring gear to the carrier.

I have the 3.70 gear set from Holland, and all of the bolts had to be shortened to secure it to the carrier under the 50 ft pounds of torque. The 3.89 and the 4.22 are a little thicker ring gears, but I would still strongly recommend checking the bolt hole depth as I have described here just to be sure. As notesd in many posts, ring gear bolt issues have plagued our LBC since they were new. Doing this, you'll KNOW the bolts are holding the ring gear correctly.