Broken shaft removal from locker

[dwcjwerfner]

So when I snapped my rear axle on the weekend it is of course twisted and is jammed in there, I was pounding on an old small axe shaft held tight with a ratchet strap with a sledge last night and it doesn't seem to be moving.
Those with experience with this bag of fun let's hear it please.

Thanks
Dwayne

 

[dwcjwerfner]

Well I am embarassed by what I did but man enough to share what I did wrong so others can learn by my mistakes :flipoff2:

When I pulled the other shaft out because it needed an oil seal anyway I could see what I though was the end of the axle, which it was sort of. So I set up a jig to hold a long bar in place and proceeded to pound on it for a ........ very long time and maybe breaking a sledge in the process. :banghead:

Now imagine this down 3' of axle tube and when you can see the dimple a washer with a hole in it looks just like a drive axle.

Anyway when it didn't come out I figured I might as well pull the Detroit which took a whole 10 minutes and realized my error. When I had it out I was just able to push the axle stub through with a small pry bar. So I figured I had better open it up and see what/if damage was done. These thrust washers looked perfectly fine when I split the Detroit open but when I popped one out I got a jigsaw puzzle. Ditto for the other side. Well crap, so Monday morning I called Eaton first thing and finally got the right number for tech support as their website did not show these parts seperately, the guy I talked to was really helpful and when I described what I needed and hrrmmm told him how I did it he asked me if I drove the truck on road or mostly offroad. I told him strictly offroad and he says "throw those parts away". Whew

Well apparently that is the "soft-locker" part of my Detroit, I did always wonder why it was so quiet as usually people complain about the clanging and banging, I guess mine will be loud now :lol:

Oh here is an "exploded" pic of a Detroit, not really that hard to figure out and I do not need 4 hands as some people claim to put it back together.

So new rule if it is a soft-locker do not pound through with a bar but if it is not then have at her.

 

[Dirk]

Doh

 

[dwcjwerfner]

did you try my welder approach ummmmm from the broken side?

:glasses:

Did you read why I did what I did? I also could have used a magnet, or removed the carrier in the first place or knocked it through with a bar which are all on the web as ways of removing it including the welding rod which is usually a trail fix and comes with the possibility of splatter or even arcing the bearings as your electrical conduction is through the bearing rollers unless you open the diff and and that point you might as well pull the Detroit. I also read about people having to chisel the stub out. But when it looks like you are looking at the axle and people have had success as I would have if it wasn't a soft-locker then maybe you would have tried it that way. Oh but maybe not.

 

[Cochise]

Bumping this because I saw something cool on Pirate:


http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14409765&postcount=3423

ok this is defanantly a win in my opinion. so this weekend i brought my rig out for its maiden voyage to hollister hill ca. anyways my buddy jesse broke the long shaft on his dana 44 front. our buddy russ came up with the idea to make a electo magnet to pull the broken part out. i got a few picks of the process and a video link to you tube of it comming out

ok so we used a steering shaft from a dana 44 and cut a pair of jumper cables up. we then wraped the shaft tightley with the cables

then put a 1/2 inch drive, 6 inch long extention into the end of the rod , as the broken part was in the carrier and the steering shaft was to big to fit in.
we then slid the rod wraped with the jumper cable in the tube, hooked one side to positive on a car battery one to negitive and slowly pulled it out. it took about 3 tries but it worked great.
anyways heres the link to the you tube video of it comming out

http://youtu.be/HTYtEBpIeO4

any heres the end product

anyways dont know if any of you saw this before. it was new to me this weekend when we did it
this dana 44 had a lunchbox locker so we couldnt just push it out from the other side. anyways enjoy

 

[mucovich]

hmmm, cool fix