Bob wrote,
>Jarrid, A while back your wrote:
>
>> All you have to do is pull the axles, then pull out the third member.
>> With the right tools the procedure only takes about an hour.
>
>It sounds so simple, but then I've seen enough of your postings to
realize
>that
>"easy" to you may as well be brain surgery for many of the rest of us.
What
>are the "right tools" you mentioned and what grade replacement bolts
did you
>use?
>
>The shop manual is a bit weak in this area. Are there any particular
tricks
>to
>getting things apart, and more importantly, back together again?
>
>Thanks and regards, Bob Douglas
First of all Bob and Alpiners, give yourselves some credit.
Any job like this is just a large list of smaller simple procedures.
Take your time, look into what your in for, be prepared and most of all,
play it safe.
Keep the parts clean, replace suspect parts and label everything that
you are not positive you could recognize a year from now.
This job can be done in your spare time, part by part, until the job is
done.
Axle/Diff removal is as follows.
Remove the driveshaft attachement to the drive yoke on the diff unit.
(Do this now, as the e-brakes and tranny in gear can make it a lot
easier to loosen
the nuts.)
Pull off the road wheels and the brake drums.
Next there is the problem of removing the hubs from the axles.
Ramon put out a post e few days past, on a tool that was built by a
SoCal sunbeam expert named Dan Walters. Dan has constructed a tool that
works well with Tiger and Alpine hubs.
Perhaps Ramon would bless us with this knowledge so that we can
build one, and perhaps share is as community property?
Personally I have had good luck with renting quality hub pullers, but
wimpy ones,
or ones not specifically set up for 4 on 4 1/4 inch hubs should not be
used.
Universal hub pullers seldom work, and are easily broken by the amount
of force required to unseat the hub from the axles.
After the hubs are off, the brake line fittings must be removed from the
wheel cyls.
Remove the e-brake hardware from backing plate as well.
5 bolts and nuts are removed from the (seal) covers. These bolts go
through the seal covers as well as the backing plates, and bolt all the
above to the
axle flanges.
The backing plates are removed, and the axle can now be extracted.
If the axle is not easily pulled by hand, the hub can be installed with
a loosely
tightened axle nut, and pulled with a slide hammer, or whatever works.
Keep trying, you are pulling the axle splines from the differential
gears, and sliding
the bearing out of the case, that is all.
There are no clever clips or anything to keep the axles from coming out,
only the backing plate keeps the axle in the case via the bearing.
Remove all the diff nuts from the front end of the differential.
(Drain gear oil as appropriate).
Be carefull on the last few nuts as the diff is only attached by the
nuts to the axle case studs.
After the nuts are all removed, the diff can be pulled straight out the
fron of the
axle case. Carefull it's heavy!
The diff can be replaced as a unit, provided you have the appropriate
splined axles
to go with your case and the differential gears in the diff itself.
Re-assembly is the opposite of these instructions, but new gaskets
should be used,
new oil seals considered, and of course the brakes must be bled.
I have popped 4.55/3.89 gear sets in and out depending upon the mood
I'm in, and have gotten pretty used to this procedure.
This whole ordeal takes me about 2 hours 6 beers for removal, and 3
hours 8 beers for Installation.
Jarrid
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