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| Removing circlip |
You first need to remove the circlips on all four sides of the joint. The problem with these buggers is that they tend to get rusted stuck (in my case). So you'd have to hammer them out with a punch/screwdriver but the problem is that you can't really position the punch properly. The position on the pic was the best that I could manage. If the circlips aren't stuck, you only need a few taps and they fly off (literally). But if they're really stuck, only patience and perseverance will be your friends. After having removed the circlips and spraying on lots of rust eater, I screwed on the c-frame press, stuck on the impact and started whacking away.
At first it didn't wanna budge and I was afraid that all the pounding would render my new tool useless, but eventually the bearing caps started moving out slowly till they literally popped out. The bearing cap on the outside could then be removed easily. The u-joint can't be removed yet. To do so, you need to remove the bearing cap on the opposite side.
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| From Restoration of the HLS30-141107 |
Tap on the exposed axle to drive the other bearing cap back into its socket of the half shaft. Then mount the c-frame on the opposite side and drive the bearing cap out. Now the flange yoke and u-joint can be separated from the drive shaft.
It's difficult to use the c-frame press to separate the u-joint from the flange yoke because the sides of the yoke are slanted (whereas those on the half shaft itself are straight). As a result, the receiving side of the c-frame rests on only one side of the bearing socket. When you try to press the caps out, force is applied diagonally and the c-frame starts shifting. I managed to press out one u-joint this way but I found that clamping the flange yoke in a vice and hammering did the trick - and hitting me thumb a few times in the process.
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| Clamping the flange yoke in a vice works better to drive out the remaining bearing caps |
All in all, I'm pretty happy and impressed with the tool. I was afraid that the impact would cause damage to the threads but not even a scratch :)
Removing the u-joints from the half shafts took me about 3hrs. As mentioned before, mainly because the circlips were rusted stuck and spending a lot of time finding ways to make things work. But if you manage to get at least one circlip out, you can drive out the bearing cap on that side and with the u-joint half way out, it's easier to get access to the remaining circlip and drive it out.
The needle bearings inside the bearing caps all looked ok except for one pair (see pic above). Those needles were completely rusted and fell out upon removal of the bearing caps.
After the half shafts were stripped off their u-joints I decided to disassemble a half shaft completely. An easy but greasy job. The balls and spacers all looked in decent condition as did the shaft. The rubber boots also don't look like they need replacing so I'm saving $25 (for a pair) there :)
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| See my album for more pix and a description. |
I still need to remove the u-joints on the prop shaft but I got a bit tired of wrestling out the four joints so I've saved those for later.
