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MG MGB Technical - Axel Half Shaft Removal

I'm in the process of replacing the thrust washers in the differential of a 1971 mgb roadster.
I'm having problems removing the axel half shaft - I've tried the suggestions of putting sockets between the hub and the axel then tightening but with no success.

I understand that if this fails I need to use a puller. Does anyone know where I can get hold of one of these, how it works and what type to get?

Thanks,
James.
James Stewart

James, I assume you removed the bearing cover, correct? I finally pulled my half shaft by putting wood blocks between the hub and the shoulder surrounding the bearing. I shaved them to roughly follow the countour of the outside of the bearing. I used several blocks all around the bearing, and made the thickness about 1/2" more than the distance between hub and bearing shoulder, so that tightening the hub nut would pull out the bearing. The wood compressed almost to the point of splintering, and then the bearing finally started to come out.

You can get a puller, but any puller you get will operate on the same principle as tightening the hub, and I doubt you could get more force than you get from the hub nut itself form any kind of puller that I know of.

JMHO, MB
Mark B.

Mark,

Thanks for the advice, I managed to remove the half shaft using blocks of wood and a very large breaker bar.

Do you have any suggestions as to removing the pinion bar from the diff? I've managed to pull it out by about an inch but that's taken about four hours!

James.
James Stewart

If the roll pin hole is past the cage, insert another roll pin. This will give you something to grab onto with your Vise-Grips. Of course, you will mangle the roll pin, and have a hell of a time getting the mangled bits out once the pinion bar is finally out, but at least you can do that part on a workbench, instead of while reaching into the differential case.
Mark B.

P.S., the last time I did this job, I thought about drilling a hole in each jaw of a pair of vise grips, each hole slightly larger than the diameter of the roll pin, thus having a tool that would positively clamp onto the projecting ends of the roll pin. Then I'd have a positive grip on the pinion bar, and could really twist and pull.

I abandoned the idea when I figured out that I didn't have any drill bits hard enough to do the job. Persistence and contstant rotation of the pinion bar finally accomplished the job after about 1 hour of muscling the thing around. But there ought to be an easier way to do this ...
Mark Again

Put the pinion back in its original position and then take some fine sandpaper or crocus cloth to the central exposed area of the pinion to clean 30 years of very slight accumulation from it and then try again... I found that this worked very well and the pin was out in minutes and was also easy to re-insert.
Al
Al McMillan

All:

To remove the pinion pin, punch it out on the opposite side of the pinion roll pin. You want the roll pin hole to be expose you that you can then insert a large nail or punch through the hole. In this way you will have a “T” handle to grab onto the pin and twist and pull it out. Hopefully, the pinion pin isn’t too tight. Also, when you drive out the pinion pin don’t drive it any further than necessary to insert the nail. If you drove it too far it would hit the housing, preventing you from turning it. If this happened you would be in deep hocky.

Bryan
Bryan Prindle

To pull the halfshaft, remove all the bolts holding it, then get a slide hammer axle puller. It abbattaches to the wheel studs and has a weight that slide out the puller shaft and hit the end and will pull the axel fine.
You might be able to rent one, but ther are not expensive as i recall. I've had mine for years.
steve

Thanks for the help, I've now replaced the four thrust washers and re-assembled the diff.

I found that if you pulled the pinion pin out just so the end of it cleared the first gear then it was possible to insert a screwdriver and leaver to pin out.
James Stewart

This thread was discussed between 27/07/2002 and 31/07/2002

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