any of you guys use a long steel pipe and bang out axle bearings from other side? what diameter pipe are you using? concerned about getting them (bearings) ****-eyed in the tube from hitting on one side, and then they'll never come out, is that a worry?

 

Huh? You're supposed to cut them off with a die-grinder...

 

I've heard that can be dangerous. bearings accidentally go flying, stuck in places you don't want them stuck.

 

No. Wear gloves and a face shield. Nothing is gonna go flying. Just don't cut all the way through to the axle shaft...

 

Never heard of using a die grinder on those. I always use pipe myself. Nothing "goes flying".

3/4" galvanized works great.

 

rent a slide hammer there's a end that's made to pull bearings out simply

 

well, screwed up my left forearm lifting the diff up to the sandblaster, don't want to be tugging on a slide hammer and screw up the other one. need at least one arm for 12 oz curls.

 

does the bearing ever get twisted and stuck, or does it pretty much go flying out on 1st strike?

 

They'll come out, just keep whacking.

 

Buy the slide hammer and then you can buy other useful attachments for them for future use. I actually had a pipe and needed to remove some wheel bearings so I tried Sofa's method. I spent a minute whacking on one of the bearings and all I got were a bunch of gouges on the inside of the tubes. I used a slide hammer and they popped out easily without making any marks. Not sure about you but I would be so pissed if I whacked on the bar and it left a little trench for oil to seep out past the seal.

 

I was talking about removing the bearing from the axle.
To remove the axle shaft from the axle tube, after the C-clips are removed, the slide-hammer is the way to go. If you have drum brakes, just put the drum on backwards with a couple lug nuts threaded on just the thickness of the nut and use that as a slide-hammer...

 

When the C clips are removed, the axle slides out freely. Nothing retains it at all.

Doesn't take much force to bonk the bearings out with the pipe either. They pop right out, seal and all.

 

Can you explain a little more detail on this method, haven't heard this one?

 

A very high percentage of GM 7.5" ten bolts came with C clips and the axle shaft bearings are pressed inside the axle tubes. What he is describing shouldn't apply to you.

 

Well, he did mention c-clips. I was wondering why there isn't a tool that is similar to a slide hammer attachment, but instead of yanking on it, you somehow mount it to end of axle tube and screw it out. similar to the tools used to remove carrier bearings. thought maybe he had somehow rigged something like this with drums

 

Assuming you are knocking out the races in the axle tubes??

With the diff out, I use a long steel rod and hit one side of the race then the other till it pops out. They will go flying so be careful with what's on each side

 

honestly, I don't know. From parts availability and what others are showing on the net, they never mention races, only bearings, so I was imagining the bearings are sort of built into the races and they are a complete assembly? Can you advise? Is there both a race and a bearing, or just a bearing/race assembly? (I haven't taken the seals out yet to find out cause I'm just cleaning up the diff right now)

 

Wasn't sure if it was a 9 bolt (races) or 10 bolt (bearing). For some reason I was thinking 9bolt. But I do them both the same way.

 

Ah! Thx for clarification.

 

I too used this method on the 10 bolt style bearings. It was VERY easy with the proper tool for the slide hammer. There is less risk doing it this way than with a hammer and pipe since the slide hammer is fixed and you can't "miss" and hit your other hand. I got the inset tools from Hazard Fraught in the blow molded box.

 

this looks interesting - what I was wondering if it existed. this would be easiest method of all.

 

That is very similar to the slide hammer tool referenced earlier, then end part that grabs the bearing is essentially the same. That should work well enough for what you're doing

 

Pipe is BY FAR the easiest method of all. BY FAR. Quickest too. Doesn't take 2 seconds per side. Took longer to type this than it does to remove both bearings, after the axles are already out.

 

Rent the parts store slide hammer for free when you purchase the new bearings and seals or pay $25 to buy a Steel pipe you'll have no other use for. You also risk gouging the inside of the axle tube with a pipe or smacking your hand or axle flange with the hammer.

 

slide hammer not available for rent at autozone anymore. last guy probably broke the cheap one they give out. gotta remember, I live in yuppie ville, no one works on their own car around here.

i don't understand why one would hurt the axel tube, a few have mentoned this. lay pipe flat on rag and pound. don't lay pipe at angle and drive it into axle. Or is this easier said than done?

 

yes, similar, but this one you screw it out. not sure why more of these are not around. seems like the very best way to do this if you want to use a tool designed for the job

 

I think I used 1/2" black gas pipe

 

how about O'reilly's?? saw this tool on their website Bearing puller

 

Funny how a thread can go for days and days, when it starts with something as easy as using a pipe to knock out a couple axle bearings. People are over thinking this. Get pipe, knock em out. Done.

 

im a planner and preparer Drew. don’t even take a dump w/o a plan.

 

Use a piece of pipe. Or whatever else. I've seen people use angle iron, Dexion strap, Kindorf, Unistrut, conduit, rod stock, ANYTHING that's small enough to fit through the carrier and/or tubes, but large enough to have enough cajones to get it done.

There's no issue about "gouge" or "fly out" or any of that crap. That's all CRAP from people that haven't ever done it. Ignore em. Stick it through, bonk one out, walk around to the other side, pull it back a few ", bonk the other one out. Takes longer to walk around the car than it does to bonk the bearings out.

Ignore all the other crap. Just do it. You've already spent like 73.8 times as much time posting on the interwebz about it, than it takes to just bonk em out. Just do it and get it over with. It's too easy. You'll see...

And don't forget, 68.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot without research data.

 

lol. i thought it was closer to 75.1. %. i’m gonna try some weird thing that was in my backyard when i bought the house. won’t cost be a dime. right now i’m just busy stopping the rust. bearing replacement comes next, but no harm in learning until your ready to do the deed fixed my other car headlight gaskets today while painting

 

O, so I have an experience and opinion that differs from yours and that makes it "crap" and it means that I've "never done it"
I spent the last two months building a Ford 8.8 center with GM tubes, all catalogued in my build thread. I needed to replace the axle bearings and seals and I saw you spouting off in another thread about using a pipe through the axle. Thought I'd try it. FAIL. Gouged the axle tube. Only on the message boards of the internet will you find someone arguing that the right way to do a job is actually incorrect and a waste of time and the potentially damaging way is the best way. Only on the internet...

 

I would STRONGLY recommend having the tubes welded up into the pumpkin, both reinforcing the plug welds and also all the way around the joint, while being held ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT by some sort of fixture, while you have it apart; and of course, BEFORE putting whatever permanent finish on it.

From the factory, those almost always leeeek… maybe not a whole lot or even enough to be particularly noticeable whenever you are working on them, but over time, they always get worse. They just kind of jam the tube in there and then use those 2 plug welds on each one to hold them in; the welds crack, and that makes those leak themselves; then the tubes get loose in the pumpkin, and can move around in there a little, and gradually the leeeeeeks just get worse. A certain amount of the "clunk" that happens from going from forward to reverse, is also caused by this sometimes: the tubes are held in place by one part of the suspension but the pumpkin is held by another, and the change in torque direction turns them with respect to each other. I've actually watched one doing that.

It's also a great time to have LCARLBs welded on.

Like I have said elsewhere, I've had one powder-coated before; that worked out amazingly well. Better than paint, I thought.

 

I've heard of people welding for strength, didn't know about leaks. I have a bit of a handi-cap, no truck, too much traffic. so I really need/want to go somewhere with something big like a diff, so I'm trying the POR-15 method. I can probably get a welder come to me, but I don't know how to weld. Hoping to learn.

 

Not really a DIY welding project. Welding steel to cast iron is best left to someone with the eqpt and experience. Plus, it needs an accurate alignment method, otherwise you'll end up permanently installing camber, toe, etc.

A stripped-down housing may well fit in the trunk of a large sedan, avoiding the need for a truck.

 

You don't need to weld the tubes to the center housing. If you happen to see oil around the tubes where they meet the pumpkin it is almost always a result of capillary action which isn't caused by a loose axle tube. You would sheer off the pinion teeth or mangle the axle before the axle tubes twisted. Welding axle tubes is more common in the off-road dirt trail world where it can be needed but in our cars the payoff does not outweigh the gamble of finding a competent welder who can also restraighten it after welding. You have three problems when doing this:
1. Your welding what you would think of as normal steel to cast steel. It's not the same as welding plain ol steel. If you tried to just weld it like plain steel it will crack or have a lack of fusion. You need to follow certain steps like preheating evenly to a specific temperature (450° or more) and post heating with controlled cooling. Alternatively you could weld it in short 1" segments but you have to wait for it to cool completely between welds.
2. You have to use specific fillers like a high nickle rod for stick welding or aluminum bronze on AC/DC for TIG welding. This is because you are welding dissimilar metals. An easy analogy is that it's akin to the same problem dentists have with fillings popping loose.
3. Whoever does the job needs a way of verifying that the tubes are still straight. A jig or welding fixture is only meant to hold something in place while welding, it is by no means a way to negate or remove weld distortion from something. As soon as you removed the welded item from the fixture it would snap into it's newly distorted shape. So you need to be able to remove the distortion.

The reasons above are why welding engineers exist

 

The rear in my 74 Caprice convertible (8½" 10-bolt) had loose enough tubes that I could turn one of them with my hand. Caused a weird clunk when stopping and then accelerating. Needless to say, leeeeeeeked like all hell. In fact the reason I had it apart in the first place was from having got water in it, launching a boat.

The one I put in my 83 Z28 (a 90-91 PBR brake 10-bolt) had one tube loose enough that I could make it move in the pumpkin and change the camber or toe or whatever.

Both of them leaked.

I highly recommend having yours welded up. With a fixture to hold it perfectly straight, and another one to hold the control arm bolt holes straight... you not only don't want to weld them in with some oddball camber or toe, but also not with a twist, which would make the car "crab" down the street.

 

used 3/4” galvanized pipe. 60”. banged like hell, added heat. one bearing destroyed in the process. those puppies were in there for good. finally came out. would have broke my elbow with a slide hammer. used a plastic sleeve to prevent damage to axle tube. all out, all good

 

I apologize for my ignorant replies. I was thinking of the Ford 9-inch style rearend ( the last rearend I replaced bearings on) which has the bearings pressed onto the ends of the axle shafts. Totally different setup.
Sorry!...