Guest XR1000 Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 i am attempting to replace my rear wheel bearings. after one hour of no results with the slide hammer i was hopeing one of you could tell me of any tricks too remove the shaft . 1975 280Z ( stock ) I will not go into what i had to do to remove nut!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilRufusKay Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 Robert, Your 280 has a independent rear suspension. The axles do not slide out like they would on a solid rear axle. They are bolted onto a flange connected to the differential. However, you should not need to remove them anyway. Both rear wheel bearings are housed in the drum. When you took off the outside nut you should have found the outer bearing under a big washer that sat under the nut. The inner bearing is inside the back of the drum. Flip it over, there will be a seal. Remove the seal and there is the bearing. You will need a new seal to install as the old one will be junk. Rufus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 8, 2004 Share Posted February 8, 2004 Whaaaaat???? Maybe I didn't follow Evil, but here's my trick. Take off drum or remove caliper and rotor (whichever you've got) and remove halfshaft. Cut peened part of the nut on the backside of the strut off carefully, and remove the big nut that holds the stub axle in. Here's the trick: use an air hammer with a pointed tip on the backside of the stub axle. There is a little dimple in the stub axle, but the tip of the air hammer right in the dimple, lean into it, and pull the trigger. The vibration from the air hammer will slide the stub axle right out, and it is much easier IMO than using a slide hammer. Oh, and get some 280 ZXT nuts so you don't have to worry about the peened area of the nut next time around. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phil1934 Posted February 8, 2004 Share Posted February 8, 2004 Sometimes you just can't do it. I tried to pull mine today with the 5# slide hammer. Switched to two 10# barbell weights, then 2 25# weights. Had to brace the car to keep from pulling it over, but no luck. I'll pull the strut/arm assembly and take them to the machine shop for the hydraulic press. I have a new found appreciation for the guys who managed to do this in a Pull a Part lot. Yes, I ground the nuts and removed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilRufusKay Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 Well to be honest I have not changed my rear wheel bearings yet as I have only had the car a short while. However, I have R&R'd many in the past. Jon, are you saying that the bearings are not housed in the drum? I guess I can't understand why you would need to remove the axle. Could you explain a little? Thanks, Rufus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 The drum just slides onto the studs and sits on the stub axle. The stub axle is 2 pieces, the outer flange piece (where the drum and wheel bolts on) and the inner companion flange (where the halfshaft bolts to). These two pieces come together thru a hole in the strut housing. The bearings sit inside the hole one on the inside and one on the outside portion of the hole, separated by a big metal spacer sleeve. The end of the outer piece is splined then threaded, and the companion flange slides onto the splines, then the big ol nut holds the 2 together. The nut is then peened onto the stub axle to keep it from backing off. That's the thing most people screw up on. They see the nut, grab a socket and an impact gun and take it off before cutting off the peened area. It will come off, but it will waste the threads. That's a fairly accurate if not terribly descriptive explanation of the stub axles. If someone had a pic for you to look at that would be better... Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilRufusKay Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 Now I understand!!! Thanks Jon. Don't listen to me Robert..I obviously did not know what I was talking about!!! Rufus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 I've found a trick that so far has worked every time with minimal swearing involved. It involves a little fabrication, but the end result is well worth it. I purchased a slide hammer from Harbor Freight Tools, one of their larger ones thats around 10 pounds if I remember correctly. I modified one of the attachments that came with it, a hook shaped thing that threads onto the end of the slide. I cut off the hooked flat bar so that only 2" of it was left hanging off the end of the threaded collar, and then welded another chunk of flat bar on the opposite side of it, so that now there are two "ears" sticking out of the front of it instead of a hooked flat bar. I found a large bolt, about 5/8" shank and 4" long, then drilled holes in the ears so that it will pass through them. Next I made a flange out of 1/4" plate steel that will bolt to a standard 4 bolt wheel hub, welded to the outer surface of this, in the center is a loop of 3/8" steel round stock bent in a "D" shape. Once I have it bolted to a stub axle, I can put a long pipe or breaker bar through this loop for leverage. I put another breaker bar with the appropriate socket on the stub axle nut on the backside, and turn the axle so that the breaker bar will jam against the suspesion arm when I turn the outer flange with the pipe running through it. I dont grind the staked portion of the axle nut, just grab the pipe and pull upwards, and if you have enough leverage it will just crack the staked portion of the nut without damaging the threads on the axle itself. After removing the nut and companion flange from the axle, I attach the slide hammer by running the large 5/8" bolt through the ears on the modified attachment peice that I made, and through the "D" shaped hoop on the flange that is still bolted to the stub axle by the wheel nuts. Having a solid connection on the slide hammer is VERY important, I tried using chain bolted to the stub axle the first few times, and it didn't work at all. Using my modified fitting and Flange, I can always get the stub axle out with 3 pulls or less. I've pulled many stub axles with it, and have never had any trouble, even with ones that I had tried at for most of a day while using a chain to attach the slide hammer. Pulling stub axles now has gone from a half day affair to a half hour event. I'll post some pictures of my slide hammer fittings if you want them. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest XR1000 Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 thank you one and all. JT added it up subtracted it out and came up with the best solution for me. " get a bigger hammer " I wonder if that will work on my clock???? anyway I am back on the road thanks J T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Juday Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 Jon, excellent discription of the rear stub axle/bearings set-up. Mike, yes i'd love to see pics of your modified slide hammer. Maybe you could even pull a tire and show how it mounts up to the axle. I can be a little daft at times, had a trouble following your discription of how it works. While we're here and the search is down (I know the answer is there) for us 240 guys can we upgrade to 280 stubs while things are apart? The 280's are larger and stronger, right? Is it as simple as getting 280 stub axles and bearings and wacking them in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Dan, I'll break out the camera tomorrow and shoot some pictures of my slide hammer at work. it will probably end up being quite a few pictures, actually. Maybe something that could get a sticky put on it sometime. As for the 280 vs 240 stub axles: I've upgraded mine to 280 stubs, I think the only difference between the two is the spline count where it attaches to the companion flange. I think the 280 has like 2 or 3 more splines? The rest of the shaft looks the same, and will fit directly in place of the 240 stubs providing that you use the 280 companion flange as well. I don't really see much advantage to using the 280 stubs though, since most of the stub failures I've heard about were at the point where the shft is joined to the outer hub, which appears to be identical between the 240 and 280 stubs. I've never heard of a shaft failing at the splines. I'm pretty sure you'd break almost every other drivetrain component before destroying the splines on a stub axle. Seems like you'd be more likely to bend the output shaft of the transmission, or snap the driveshaft before killing the stub axles. I think most of the failures are due to road racing type abuse as well. lots of yanking the car through corners at high rates of speed, loading up the stub axle with all kinds of G forces. The drag racing guys seem to break halfshafts and CV shafts before anything else. Long story short: I don't really think that the 280 stub axles offer any advantage over the 240 units. The 280 stubs are more plentiful at the junkyards out here though, so thats what I ended up using. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Air chisel, air chisel, air chisel! As Jon said. One buuuuuurrrrrrpp and its done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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