fbekholden.com

well after trying all suggestions it was just never going to budge. I ended up having to take the diff out and get it down my mates workshop. We blasted it a few times with the oxy and eventually it began to slowly move after a few shots of heating and then having to wait for it to cool down to try again.

However, one thing led to another and now I've totally cleaned and pulled apart the diff from end to end & also the diff centre and ripped all the bearings out and replaced them. just waiting on another spare day to get back down there and put it all back together and paint her up like new.

Thanks for the suggestions along the way guys - much appreciated

Apologies for dragging up an old thread, though looking to see if anyone has any other suggestion.

My daily driver FB developed noise in the passenger rear quarter. Took the wheel off, and the rear wheel bearing on that side was shagged - felt very gravelly when spinning it. I managed to get a new set of seals and bearings (took some hunting around), and got stuck into it. Tried using the "reverse the brake drum and use it as a puller" trick, but did not have enough force to pull the axle. I ended up using an old Litchfield slide hammer, which has "claws" on the end to grab the axle flange. Took a couple of taps, but got the axle out. So far, so good.

Found out that my SuperCheap shop press does not have enough length to press the bearing off, so got a diff reconditioner in Smithfield to press the bearing out. Had a bit of a think, and I can lengthen my shop press to suit - bought some heavy C-channel, and will make the legs longer. The standard length press is long enough to push the new bearings on though. Got the new bearing fitted, and the axle back in. Test run shows the noise is gone - happy days.

If the bearing on one side was shagged, there is a pretty good chance that the other side is not too far behind it. Got the drivers rear hub off, got the locking plates out, and went at it with the slide hammer. Axle definitely doesn't want to budge, despite some heavy pounding. Hub back on again, and back to daily driving duties. I still want that bearing changed though.

My plan of attack:
a) chain the diff back so it can't fall off the axle stands (probably should have done this on the other side too ).
b) replace the slide hammer "claws" with a "toed fitting" like this one: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Toledo-Rear- ... Swu4BVjcJU. This will let me put a lot more force on the axle flange, rather than have the "claws" slip.
c) replace the slide hammer weight with something a bit more hefty. The weight at the moment is a lump of steel about as big as your fist. I've got an old tilt-a-door counterweight that is about 9" diameter and 4" tall that will work. Makes it a 2-man job, but manageable. Will try a few taps "in" as well as pulling out.
d) if the heavy duty slide hammer doesn't work, I'll give the diff casing a warm up with the gas axe then try again.

The only other way I've heard of getting them out is to use a long drift. Pull the opposite axle, then run the drift through the diff centre. This sounds painfull though.

Any other ideas?

Cheers,
Harv

Hi Harv,

See the post I made over at the FE/FC Forum almost 10 years ago. I used a log splitter as a slide.

http://forum.fefcholden.club/index.php? ... 0#msg57540

Cheers

Rod

Thanks Rod - appreciated.

Cheers,
Harv

Harv is there anyway you can use jacking bolts or a porta power?
From memory the backing plate hole diameter is large enough for the bearing to slide through (once the retainers have been removed). The only two items left between the bearing and the axle flange would be the brake anchor and the dust cover plates. I would try and use some long studs, feed them through all four mounting bolt holes and the brake backing plate. Put nuts on both sides of the axle housing flange and backing plate only. Feed/thread the studs towards the axle and feed them through the mounting holes on the brake anchor and dust cover plates. Keep threading the nuts forcing the studs further outwards onto the axle. I would load the axle as much as you can then use a slide hammer on a few studs. This might work but I cant remember if the axle surface is flat enough to stop the studs from bending outwards.
You could also make a 1/2" or so plate that could bolt up to the wheel mounting that would/could be solidly fixed to a big arse slide hammer.

Craig Allardyce wrote:Harv is there anyway you can use jacking bolts or a porta power?
From memory the backing plate hole diameter is large enough for the bearing to slide through (once the retainers have been removed). The only two items left between the bearing and the axle flange would be the brake anchor and the dust cover plates.

Yep, as long as you fish the two square retainers out from behind the backing plate, the axle is free to move through the brake assembly.

Craig Allardyce wrote:I would try and use some long studs, feed them through all four mounting bolt holes and the brake backing plate. Put nuts on both sides of the axle housing flange and backing plate only. Feed/thread the studs towards the axle and feed them through the mounting holes on the brake anchor and dust cover plates. Keep threading the nuts forcing the studs further outwards onto the axle. I would load the axle as much as you can then use a slide hammer on a few studs. This might work but I cant remember if the axle surface is flat enough to stop the studs from bending outwards.

Not sure if I can get jacking studs to work. From memory, the inboard face of the axle flange has a pretty good radius on it that would bend the jacking studs out. There is also not much meat left on the flange at that PCD because of the three access holes drilled through the flange.

Craig Allardyce wrote:You could also make a 1/2" or so plate that could bolt up to the wheel mounting that would/could be solidly fixed to a big arse slide hammer.

I thought I'd try that too. Got some heavy plate, marked it up and drilled it. It only then dawned on me that the axle flange outboard face has a huge "lump" in the middle of it - studs are too short to get a decent flat plate in. The "toed" fitting in my post above steps over that lump, and will let me get the BFSH (Big !@#$%^ Slide Hammer) evenly onto the studs.

Cheers,
Harv

Why assume the driver side is knackered Harv? Passenger tends to cop more of a hammering running off the shoulder, hitting kerbs etc. ain't broke don't fix it.


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Harv, can you knock the studs out and use longer bolts?

Errol62 wrote:Why assume the driver side is knackered Harv? Passenger tends to cop more of a hammering running off the shoulder, hitting kerbs etc. ain't broke don't fix it.

Doing both sides was just the way I was taught, I guess. Got the bearing and seal sitting here, pressed onto a spare axle ready to go in.

Some of the mechanical on the car has been driving me nuts for a while. Front wheel bearing had only been changed on the driver's side - passengers had the original bearing and GMH oil seal (both sides now changed). A lot of bolts missing their spring washers. Pulled two sets of horn contacts out of the steering wheel . Motor had been rebuilt and the old fibre timing gear reused (found that one out the hard way, 150km from home with four kids and a fully laden box trailer). Pitman arm had been flogged up so far that the arm cold-welded onto the spline (bent both the heavy cast puller and the shop press plates trying to get that off ).

Craig Allardyce wrote:Harv, can you knock the studs out and use longer bolts?

Don't think so - from memory the wheel stud "heads" are the obstruction, but the stud centres are outside the backing plate flange pcd.

Cheers,
Harv

Cut the studs flush and punch through. They're quite cheap to replace.