Hi guys, hoping to get a hand here. Trying to get this mess on the road and sounds like I'm grinding sand in the axle. Turns out the passenger outer bearing race was toast. So, here I am trying to pull the bearing off the axle and it is NOT going. I've even got a proper (?) Gray bearing puller, pushing against the hub and the only thing I have managed to do so far is the scuff the axle surface with the puller. I've tried giving the bearing retainer a couple decent wacks with a cold chisel and hammer, and I've tried hitting the puller with a hammer while its tight, still nothing. Anyone have any ideas here? I want to cruise this thing to Woodward this year (one week from now), but it has other ideas.

The cold chisel and hammer is what used to do on axles that used a retained bearing. Place the axle parallel to the ground with the retainer on something solid, like an anvil, piece of railroad track or such.

Then use the cold chisel with the 'blade' parallel to the axle and wack it good. As such that the you are trying to cut the retainer off. After a while the tension of the retainer should subside.

If not then grab a dremel with a cut off wheel and slice the retainer. Don't go so far to cut into the axle. Once close then follow up with the chisel and hammer in that slot.

RBob.

Ok, thanks. Makes me nervous to have a cold chisel and a BFH near the axle shaft, but its not going to drive well on three wheels. I'll post how it goes.

Use the chisel on the retainer ring like RBob said. This will loosen it. Then cut the cage off of the bearing and remove the rollers so that you can see the inner race. Use a MIG welder and run a hot weld around the inner race (a muffler shop shoiuld be able to do this for you if you don't have a welder). This will loosen it up and you will be able to get it all off easily. Just be sure that you don't allow any weld splatter to ruin the finish on the axle shaft.

Holy crap!!! This is fairly intense stuff. I'll bring my camera out and take pics as I am going along. Is this how a shop replaces these bearings? The GM manual says "use tool # XXXXX to remove the retainer, bearing and seal." Nothing more. Nothing about stuck retainers or anything. I'll hit it (carefully) with a zip disc and finish it off with the chisel. I'll post pics of the axle I pulled out (I'm using a spare for the re-install). Its got the retainer installed backwards and welded to the shaft. Nice!!

Well, I managed to get it done. Thanks for the help. I took some pictures while I was doing the removal. Is it worth making a tech article for??