How to remove a CV axle that’s seized into the hub

[Mike]

I’ve been honing this technique for a few years, and I put together a video of how I deal with this problem. I run into this about once a month, and I hear other mechanics are also running into this more and more frequently. As far as I can tell, Mitsubishi and Hyundai/Kia are the worst with this. There’s not a lot of information out there on how to deal with this problem, but there’s tons of people on forums saying they’re running into it. I certainly wanted to share this with my fellow techs here, as some of you have given me some great advice in my times of need.

The Posi Lock 110 puller I use is less than $300, making it cheap compared to how much money you can make if you run into this alot as a tech or how much you’d pay as a customer to have this done. The job in the video paid me 5 hours at a cost of $500 to the customer, and I even made a little time on it despite taking the time to film it. It took far longer to edit the video than to do the job, but at least I can sit down, relax, and have a beer while editing.

I do pity anyone trying to do this in their driveway:

Topic

[Benjamin]

I will take this advice to the boss when he gets back from vacation. Let’s see if we can get something like this.
I work at mitsubishi too and everytime I see a Pajero or Outlander and I have to change wheel bearing or just getting the drive shaft out of the hub, I almost start to sweat before I’ve even taken the car in 😛 😛

It’s especially a big problem here in norway because in the winter they are using so extremely much salt on the roads.. It’s barbaric.

It’s sad to see that esp. Japanese brand use so much crap steel in the cars.. It’s just so bad now then what it used to be..

This was a good tip my friend. I’ll forward it to my boss and see if he could get this in the shop.

[Jon Hart]

This is the puller kit I use i that fails to break it lose normally just bill for a hub and a joint as applying the heat will damage the wheel bearing and the cv joint anyway and the prices for the hub usually work out at at 45 mins and if the kit has failed to shift it chances are I’ll be applying heat and hammering for longer than that anyway.

Hub puller kit

EDIT after watching the video must say well done Many would of given up long before that point .

[James O’Hara]

Ya I had fun with my ’06 jetta doing one. (New Jersey brine and PA salt did a number) I actually pulled the hub apart trying to push it out. Something you might want to try would be adding silikroil to your arsenel. Soak that thing down before you get to far into it like before you start to get all those tools out. I am sure you used some kind of penetrating fluid before but, silikroil makes light work of severely rusted jobs like that. Not saying you won’t have to heat and beat but, it might cut the time down.

Also I had to laugh at you guys using 2 hands on the 3lb hammer. It is my go to hammer I use all the time I rarely use anything lighter. I hate those anti-vibe ones btw. I know it wasn’t yours but, they hurt my hands more then just my good old hickory handle 3lb. I also have a 4lb Blacksmith ill break out every once in a while but, normally I can use my 3lber to break stuff loose most guys need an 8lb sledge for so…..

Here is the link to the manufacturer website for Silikroil. http://www.kanolabs.com/penLub.html They make other penetrating oils that do not have silicone in them if you are near a body shop. But, in my experience when it comes to penetrating down deep and loosening up anything severely rusty Silikroil works better then Kroil.

[none]

That posi lock looks just like the cranes they use at the scrap yard to feed junk cars to the into the crushers. Mike, if they ever decide to build a Robocop out of you, I can see that being your new right hand.

I haven’t had any real problems with Kia/Hyundai hubs except for the fronts on the Sedona minivans. I hope I never see one of those again. My tactics for them is to pull he knuckle with the axle still in it and walk it over to a 60 ton press. The last time I did one, I had the rosebud tip on the torch and heating the hub ’til it glowed whilst I had the skinniest guy in the shop literally hanging off the arm doing everything he could to maintain 25 tons of pressure on the axle whilst I kept cooking and making rounds with the air hammer in between. It was a success story 40 minutes in the making. Not that it didn’t suffer some collateral damage. I didn’t have the greatest tooling to support the back side of the knuckle; so when I went to align the van, it was on the edge of its max positive camber spec. BUT, it did not have a pull when all was said and done. 😀

[Jason White]

Awesome job! My only question is that you have to add at least 2hrs extra labor, and it could still damage the CV axel, so would just replacing the cv axle be a more logical solution? I’ve had to deal with some stuck one’s even here in the South, but nothing that bad.

[Mike]

[quote=”Jasonw1178″ post=141615]you have to add at least 2hrs extra labor, and it could still damage the CV axel, so would just replacing the cv axle be a more logical solution?[/quote]

Regardless of whether or not the axle is replaced, it still takes this same horror show to get the old one out so the extra labor happens no matter what. It’s how I’m doing it that saves the axle. It only takes a few extra minutes of the TLC during that 2 hours to prevent the end of the axle from getting all bent and mashed up. I used to take longer to do the same thing and damage the axles pretty bad when I was first running into this. In the video, you can also catch a discussion where I complain that the new axles we got (from Mitsubishi) don’t come with inner CV joints and the old ones need to be swapped over to the new axles (also requiring inner boot kits to do so). Nobody got any labor for rebuilding axles because that whole fiasco went un-noticed, so that would have been free if I’d had to do that. I’ve tried to convince them to mail order complete aftermarket axles for 1/3 the cost of Mitsu ones, but I haven’t won that logic battle yet. Replacing the axle is undesirable anyway because the rusty rear suspension would have to come apart in this case, and that’s a whole ‘nuther rust disaster to get into that nobody wants to pay for.

MDK22, you’re not the first person I’ve heard singing the praises of Kroil, but you can’t get it at any walk-in stores around me. I’ve thought about mail-ordering some of it from Eastwood, and now I just might do that. You gotta cut us some slack on the two-handed hammering though, we can’t all pack as much meat as you do ya’ ballbuster! Besides, the target area is less than one square inch. Needs precision hits, like swinging a golf club. Having a good hammer swing uses the same principles of a good golf swing, although the analogy lost on most mechanics because it’s pretty rare for one of us to also be a golfer.

Fmxvxx, thanks for posting up the link to that tool. It’s got me looking at all kinds of tools I didn’t know were out there.

[James O’Hara]

Got to watch aftermarket axles. I did that for my minivan when i had it and the thing felt like an unbalanced laundry washer above 70mph. It got really bad at 90+mph.

[zero]

Dear god am I happy to live where it’s too cold for salt most of the winter. I had to work on a 10 year old CRV the other day that must have been in the east at some point. Not so much fun.

At about 2:00, your coworker needs to eat more fiber.

At about 8:00, *eyeroll* parts department *eyeroll* One of our parts guys almost got a face full of how I felt a couple weeks ago when they ordered one part, but not the other NEEDED for a job.

Just give up on the logic battle. It has no place in a dealership.

Anyway, good video. Hopefully someone will see this and realize why it costs more than “book time” for some jobs.

[Mike]

[quote=”DaFirnz” post=141916]At about 2:00, your coworker needs to eat more fiber.[/quote]
I have forwarded your advice to the appropriate party 😆

[Author]

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