How are you supposed to separate birfields from axles again?

[medtro]

I've tried a lot of these things, including putting the axle in the (steel) pipe and slamming the whole thing down on concrete.

That was what I did, and this is what I got; https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/30973-snap-ring-took-2-spines-inner-axle.html.

 

[Kernal]

shaneiseminger: The birfs do come apart but the shaft has to be out of the star in order to pull the balls, star, and cage out of the bell or cup of the birf. The dark bluish discoloration is normal, from the factory heat treatment.

 

[rove_mcanus]

I'll have to hunt down a good vise and see what I can do with that. I also have a theory that if I had a large, heavy piece of fixed steel with a hole in it, I could pull the axle through that and get more inertia on it.

Your theories intrigue me

You are right though. If you can add more weight to the axle shaft and not the birfield joint, you will get more force acting on the c-clip to pop it. This is probably why the long side always comes out easier. More weight in the long side axle.

 

[Land Speeder]

I have probably knocked 15 stars off axle shafts in the recent past. Whether they be still in the birf as a whole or just the star from a broken birf. I have yet to have one stick, I use a 3-5 pound hammer and swing at the star in line with the shaft rotating with every swing, never takes more than a couple... it might be brutal but it's the only method of getting a star off when the birf is broken...

 

[shaneiseminger]

Finally got the birfield off!

Thanks all for the feedback. I finally got the damn thing off. What did the trick, you ask?

Well . . . probably everything. A few days ago I noticed that there was a fair amount of in-out play, though I wasn't sure why. Today I fed the axle through the front crossmember, which just happens to have a about 1.5" hole in it, and pulled it through there several times (this is only possible if you have the front grille and engine dismantled anyway). No dice, but noticed slightly more play.

So I went back to the pipe method, and slammed the whole assembly down on the concrete. I had to use good solid concrete, because I was slamming it down hard enough to break up wood or brick (plus those materials are slightly softer, absorbing some of the impact). I slammed it down really hard several times and got the axle to pop out.

On inspection I realized what was happening: the c-clip wasn't sitting in its groove, or maybe it was too thick or something, because the splines of the star had to actually cut across the clip, leaving spline-shaped grooves in it (sort of like here except the clip didn't break, and I don't see any spline damage). So all that pounding was slowly cutting across the clip.

I think it would never have gotten through that clip with the tapping method, and it would have taken many more days of pounding at the force that works for most people. The extra-hard blows in the crossmember and pipe probably helped the most. The pipe is now deformed and flared at one end, if that gives you an idea of the amount of force required.