PULL, PULL, SNAP!!!!!!!!

[code109]

hi everyone
ive taken the rear axle out of my hunter to refurb it and dismantle the diff so I can machine certain bit in work....
however to do all this I first need to remove the rear hubs... which is proving more than difficult!

ive bought 2 hub pullers now, both of which have snapped!!! 

I'm stuck what to doooo..... ive soaked them in 3in1 oil, whacked them with a hefty hammer, swore at them very loudly.... nothing works!

ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVICE?

thanks

[composimmonite]

My hub puller is a hydraulic Sykes & Pickavant that would cost around £300 to replace. I originally borrowed it from the training workshop of local young offenders prison but they closed the facility down and didn't want it back as it would simply have got dumped in a skip with all the other tools (no- I couldn't rescue anything else for obvious reasons) !

Most garages will have the same sort of kit and it's probably worth slipping one a few quid to separate the hub from the halfshaft. Normally you can just get access to remove the bearing retainer so half shaft can be pulled out with hub still in situ so that means not having to maul a whole axle to a garage.

[code109]

oh wow! lol yeah that looks a bit more advanced than my little beaut! haha

[Xenocide]

I made a puller (err - whacker) to get the hubs out of my simitar axle. Once the drive members were out (still attached to the half shaft), i put a bit of scaffold pole over the half shaft which rested on the inside of the bearing (and therefore the drive member), i whacked the other end of the scoffold pole on the floor until it popped the drive member loose.

There's pictures in my scimitar thread (link in sig) if you wanted to have a look to see if a similar thing could apply to your situation.

[varelse]

I was having issues with one of my rear hubs yesterday, too!
I wandered down to the next workshop and borrowed their tool, which is a really clever but simple piece of kit.
It's basically an old hub and shaft with a big chunk of steel welded to the spline and a rubber donut to take a bit of the impact, and then a front hub inserted between to work like a slide hammer.
You just bolt it up to the studs on the one you're trying to remove and give it a few good tugs.

I'll upload a pic and post it. Be really easy to make one, and I think I'm going to make one myself.

[nomad]

Try pouring a kettle of boiling water over them and see if that loosens them? Any other heat - paintstripper gun, blowtorch etc
Hope you get it sorted

The hubs drums came off mine ok when I needed to change a leaking 1/2 shaft bearing but the bearings & hubs were well stuck on the shaft.
We tried machine shops in 3 counties and could see the 20-ton bearing press bending in each one before they gave up
I took the easy option and just swapped the shaft on the other side with a known good one when that needed fixing

In case of emergency - I have a spare set of drums hidden behind the sofa

Tip : run a grinder around the inside of the drums when you get them off to remove any lip - it makes it sooo much easier to fit/adjust/remove them in future

[eternaloptimist]

Are you trying to get the brake drums off or the hubs off the halfshafts?

[steveg]

Triumph Herald and Spitfire hubs are difficult to shift and you can get pretty good hub pullers for doing them. Depending on what car you are working on maybe you could use one of those.

Just spotted you have a Hunter so the Triumph puller wouldn't fit, wonder if you could re-drill one to suit.

[composimmonite]

A hydraulic press will also be suitable for removing the hub as long as it has sufficient clearance for the halfshaft. I've removed hubs using a hydraulic pipe bender by using a couple of lengths of angle iron to support the flange on the frame that has the rollers and not having a former on the ram.

Where in UK are you ?

[MrSpeedy]

I split a couple of hubs from halfshafts for sowen a month or two back. I think they were Scimitar/Ford axle

Took around 6 tons under my press to shift them IIRC

[sowen]

Nov 20, 2014 17:13:09 GMT MrSpeedy said:

I split a couple of hubs from halfshafts for sowen a month or two back. I think they were Scimitar/Ford axle

Took around 6 tons under my press to shift them IIRC

Yep Scimitar axle, I tried it on my pipe bender but it was bending the frame!

[code109]

wow! thanks for the help guys unfortunately I put the hubs n half shafts in the 5 ton press at work to no avail!!! I have to space the wheels out a bit any way so I might just make a wheel stud pcd adaptor / spacer thing out of some old stainless billet??? one things for sure though, they're stuck on there GOOD N PROPER!!!!! Haha

[darrenh]

another option, load it up to capacity with a puller AND shock it with landrover tool number 1

[v8ian]

I hope I am reading this wrong, You are trying to remove the hubs from the shafts on a hunter axle?? if that's the case, the hubs and shafts are a one piece forging, and will never press out.

[Hillmanjames]

The hubs come off on some of the axles and are held on by the big nut and are driven via a key and keyway. I think there are some pictures in my build thread of my hunter.

getting the shafts out is a proper pain in the but. The wheel bearings have an o-ring on them and if they are anything like mine, also have a tube of silicone holding them in along with lots of rust.

To get mine out, i used the blow torch on the axle casing to get it to expand a bit, then stood it on end and poured a load of Plus-Gas penetrating fluid on it ( I highly recommend this stuff!!)

I then let it sit for a bit, heated it up again and battered the hell out of the hub using a long bar and my lump hammer so that it would make the shaft come out ( not just randomly battering it ) . A Slide hammer would have been ideal for this. Its the shock loading it needs to break the rust that's holding it together.

Think of it as you have entered bodge mode and have resorted to hitting a spanner thats on a rusty nut, its the shock that breaks it loose as the force you would put on it by just pushing would be more than you could hope for( you would probably snap the spanner)

[Hillmanjames]

Here's a picture showing the end of the shaft/ hub. You can see the keyway and lots of rust. (and a tin of the magical plus gas in the background)



Remember to put the backing plates on that mount the drum brake mechanism..... not like someone writing this for got to..... then had to take it all back apart again......

James

[nomad]

^ based on my experience changing a hub bearing on my Hunter

+1 RR brownie point to Hillmanjames
Nil points to V8ian (sorry )

Hunter hubs *do* come off the halfshaft, but see my earlier post - they *really* don't want to!

[v8ian]

Well, I never knew that, The Sunbeam Vogue my dad had was deffo a one piece shaft, and, yes it was a Sunbeam Vogue, a real parts bin special at the end of the Arrow range,

[Xenocide]

Try my method. I can send you my whacker if you want to pull the bearing out the axle. You'll then have the drive member & bearing on the end of the half shaft.

Then get a bit of scoffold pole or whatever to go over the half shaft against the bearing so the half shaft is inside the pipe and not sticking out the end. Then you repeately throw the pole on the floor until it knocks the bearing & drive member off the end.

If you want me to send you my tool let me know. It's homemade and a bit rough but does the job .

Edit: When I say throw on the floor i mean whack the end of the pole on the floor. Not just chuck it on the floor. lol

[marinacoupe]

The design in the picture looks exactly the same as the Marina, a 20 ton press got one off, but just mangled the hub on the other side. The hub centre is tapered as is the end of the halfshaft. At the end of the day a gas torch and repeated fast cooling in a bucket of water freed it off.

Marina / Dolomite hub puller