separating birfield

[baldredhead]

so i'm in the midst of a front axle refresh and i've decided to partially disasseble the birfield cuz i'm not having lots of luck cleaning the grease out so i want to pull the shaft out. i'm not going to mess with the joint itself

what's the easy way? i've read about it i just can't find it with a search. something about dropping a pipe along the inner shaft

thanks

 

[2mbb]

Get a piece with inside diameter a little larger than the inner axle shaft (1 1/2" I think). The pipe should be longer than the long side inner axle. Stuff a rag in one end of the pipe. Put the rag side towards the ground, and put the inner axle inside the other end, the birfield sticking up. Holding it all, lift it up and drop it to the ground on the rag-stuffed end. The force when it hits causes the inner axle to fall out and drops onto the rag in the pipe. Hang onto the birf, or it will fall on your toes. You'll need a new snap ring when putting it back together. If you've gone this far, you might as well disassemble the birf cage and balls. You can get the procedure from the factory service manual.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Pay attention to the bevels on the birf parts when reassembling it. It isn't always clear and it can be assembled either way but will only work right the correct way.

 

[Mace]

Set it on the ground, Step on the inner, hit the face with a BFH...


All done

 

[Mace]

here

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=81886&highlight=hammer

 

[baldredhead]

thanks all, BFH sounds good, i already have one of those

 

[baldredhead]

BFH worked well, just needed to get up the nerve to hit it that hard

on the cleaning, angling the birf ball cage thing like you're going to disassemble it and then spraying the brake cleaner in there did the trick. using the plastic hose to really get in there, and letting the cleaner/grease drain out by holding it up partially was key.

just need to find time to reassemble now....