Rear half shaft seized...any advice?

[Jams]

Hi all,

First post here and and I can’t seem to find this bedded in a post so far...

I’m replacing my rear wheel bearings which involves removing the rear half shafts/axles. I’ve managed to remove the 6x E12 torx nuts on each side of where the shafts meet the differential flange, however NO movement at all in removing the shafts from the diff. Tried loads of prying and WD40 to no avail!

I can’t quite seem to figure out at which point in the rear shaft does it separate from the diff flange (photo attached).

Any advice would be appreciated - cheers.

Jams

 

[andyglym]

to the forum from West Cumbria. I'll tag a few guru's

@Lee @mrscalex @Mazza @t-tony @Sean d

They'll know.

 

[Jams]

Cheers @andyglym

Thanks for the welcome

 

[Nodzed]

Personally no idea @Lee & @GazHyde were the last ones to take mine off. Sure one of them will pop on and advise

 

[Mazza]

Hi and welcome to the forum from Bognor Regis

I have mine off at the moment

You should be able to zoom in and see The end of the shaft

 

[colb]

https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/te...ment/85-TRANS-Rear_Drive_Axle_Replacement.htm

Needs a bit of leverage and a smack with a soft hammer by all accounts.

 

[Mazza]

Just got in and taken a couple of close ups of the diff and the drive shaft

 

[t-tony]

A hammer and a slim chisel should part them easily enough.

Tony.

 

[Stevo7682]

A hammer and a slim chisel should part them easily enough.

Tony.

One of these should do the job

 

[mwpe]

When the Zedshed did my rear bushes one of the shafts would not separate and the splined shaft came out of the diff. It took quite a bit of persuasion on the bench with a fine pointed chisel and hammer to separate them.

 

[Jams]

Thanks everyone for your quick replies!

I tried the chisel and hammer approach whilst under the car but this wasn’t a success. Although I may try and get a slimmer chisel in the morning to see if this works.

@Mazza - those photos are perfect to see where the flange attaches to the axle- thanks. Nice job too.

Thanks for the welcome and advice all.

Jams

 

[mrscalex]

There's very little holding the diff end of the shaft to the diff once the bolts are out. I've done a couple of cars now and had no issues.

Best hope the splined ends come out easy from the bearing/hub assembly. That can make the diff end look like a walk in the part. I had to take a whole trailing arm assembly into an engineering workshop recently to have it removed. It needed heat from a torch (proper one not a DIY one) and a 10 ton press to move it. They are glued in at the factory with permanent adhesive. So if they haven't been apart before I suspect that's when the fun starts. And that's depsite me having the tools myself, ie it really did need the heat to break the adhesive.

 

[t-tony]

As far as I'm aware all that holds the driveshaft hub into the Diff. gears is a circlip same as on a front wheel drive set up. But if the shaft won't split you can't swing the shaft to allow it to knock out of the wheel hub.

Tony.

 

[Jams]

@t-tony - am I then right in saying that it seems the only way to release the hub splines otherwise (if the rear shaft is seized to the diff output flange) is to take the trailing arm apart from the subframe and separate the lower control arm from the rear shock?

 

[Althulas]

Silly question but did you take the drive flange nut and circlip off?

 

[t-tony]

Yes, I'm afraid it is. I have had to take the complete arm off every E30 and E36 I've ever done and press the shaft out of the hub because as Robert rightly says the driveshaft splines are bonded into the hub from the factory. And you have to thoroughly clean the splines on both parts before rebuilding them. I use a triangular file for the splines in the hub itself. It makes what should be a relatively straight forward job very difficult and time consuming.

Tony.

 

[Jams]

Thanks all very much for your help.

A new good quality thin chisel without a damaged tip did the job with a LOT of hammering although chisel is pretty unusable on wood anymore! Got one of the axle splines out (seems like it had been out before with some grease on), but the other side is my next challenge. Hopefully I can avoid having to take it to a press!

Thanks again for the collective wisdom

Jams

 

[Jams]

Interestingly it seems that the diff ends of my half shafts (2000 3.0i) are slightly different to yours @Mazza. They are OEM also.

 

[mrscalex]

The 3.0 has thicker half shafts than other models. But I hadn’t realised the diff end was different too.

 

[Jams]

So, many hours later I have almost completed this job! Great sense of achievement despite a lot of swearing and frustration.

The diff-to-axle shafts were prized apart with a (new, sharp) chisel and a lot of hammering and WD-40.

The left hub-to-axle splines came out with an appropriate sized hex socket and a bit of hammering. The right side was seized completely and I thought about taking the whole trailing arm assembly out to get it pressed out at a garage, but thought I'd try a home version first...
(https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-15-T...388463&hash=item3d78a9e8c9:g:~BwAAOSwr-Bb2qrz)...
which made relatively light work after a few adjustments.

The hub-trailing arm came out using M10 bolts and connector nuts (e.g. https://www.toolstation.com/connector-nut/p87601) through the lug nut holes on the hub to 'push' the hub away from the trailing arm.

Old circlip seized - lots of WD-40 and good quality circlip pliers/mole grips got these out - watch your eyes!

Old bearings removed with bearing tool set relatively easily.

The new bearings went in with a bearing tool set - a steep learning curve here meant that I broke the first bearing - it's seems hugely important the that bearing is pressed into the trailing arm assembly on its outer race, until it bottoms out. And also the the hub is pressed into the bearing against its inner race (not pressed against the hub assembly).

Can't wait to take it out now!

Thanks all for your help again.