EDIT : Worth the read but I figured it out. It was what Toyota calls the "Deflector" that is the metal backing plate behind a gasket and the axle plate. It was deformed and wrapped around a bit of metal on the axle housing and preventing the axle from coming out. You can see it on the final post. Learn at my expense as I learn more in this journey.
Hey all:
I am tackling grunt work projects that I can do and taking parts to the local shop for precision projects. As part of that, both my front and rear differential are going to be regeared to my larger tire ratio and I am installing ARB air lockers. I got the front axle apart following the litany of excellent teardown videos online. The rear is in theory a simpler process but for me has been a pain in the ass.
First I had a brake drum completely welded to the axle. I tried the screws (M8 1.25 pitch) to push it off the drum and that failed because one just pushed into the void behind the axle backing plate and the other hole stripped out due to corrosion. I tried to pull the axle all the way out with the drum attached so I could hammer it separately and it did not come out, it would only pull half an inch and then stop. I assumed this was because the brake pads were locking the drum in place so I spent hours of fiddling and making a custom tool so I could relax the brake pads enough to pull the drum and axle completely off. No bueno. Finally I just hammered the crap out of the drum and sprayed enough penetrating fluid into its recesses that it popped free. It wasn't the pads holding the drum in place, it was something else.
Unfortunately, maybe in the hammering process I may have bunged up the bearings, perhaps they were bunged up before. I cannot extract this axle from the housing. It slides out 1/2 inch and that is it. It stops hard like a piece of metal or clip or bearing stops it from pulling. When it rotates, the bearings are noisy but it spins, it just won't come out. It feels like I either jammed a bearing in there preventing it from sliding out or there is another C clip like thing I don't know about pinning this thing in the housing. Or maybe the rotation has to be in perfect alignment with a secret slot on the axle to slide it out.
I need some advice, thoughtful or rude, to give me a new idea so I can pull this axle, replace the bearings, and take the rear differential to the shop for a workover.
In the images below is the long axle side that slid right out after I pulled the C clip in the rear differential. The second picture is of the rear differential with the short axle length still hanging out in there but no C clip holding it in place. The third clip is me staring at this thing and spinning it and trying to jostle it loose and wondering WTF.
Hey all:
I am tackling grunt work projects that I can do and taking parts to the local shop for precision projects. As part of that, both my front and rear differential are going to be regeared to my larger tire ratio and I am installing ARB air lockers. I got the front axle apart following the litany of excellent teardown videos online. The rear is in theory a simpler process but for me has been a pain in the ass.
First I had a brake drum completely welded to the axle. I tried the screws (M8 1.25 pitch) to push it off the drum and that failed because one just pushed into the void behind the axle backing plate and the other hole stripped out due to corrosion. I tried to pull the axle all the way out with the drum attached so I could hammer it separately and it did not come out, it would only pull half an inch and then stop. I assumed this was because the brake pads were locking the drum in place so I spent hours of fiddling and making a custom tool so I could relax the brake pads enough to pull the drum and axle completely off. No bueno. Finally I just hammered the crap out of the drum and sprayed enough penetrating fluid into its recesses that it popped free. It wasn't the pads holding the drum in place, it was something else.
Unfortunately, maybe in the hammering process I may have bunged up the bearings, perhaps they were bunged up before. I cannot extract this axle from the housing. It slides out 1/2 inch and that is it. It stops hard like a piece of metal or clip or bearing stops it from pulling. When it rotates, the bearings are noisy but it spins, it just won't come out. It feels like I either jammed a bearing in there preventing it from sliding out or there is another C clip like thing I don't know about pinning this thing in the housing. Or maybe the rotation has to be in perfect alignment with a secret slot on the axle to slide it out.
I need some advice, thoughtful or rude, to give me a new idea so I can pull this axle, replace the bearings, and take the rear differential to the shop for a workover.
In the images below is the long axle side that slid right out after I pulled the C clip in the rear differential. The second picture is of the rear differential with the short axle length still hanging out in there but no C clip holding it in place. The third clip is me staring at this thing and spinning it and trying to jostle it loose and wondering WTF.
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