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Hub Assembly Troubles

T

Tommy4949

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Ogdensburg, NY 13669
I am trying to get the driver's side )as if that maters) axle shaft out to replace a bad axle seal and u-joint. I broke 2 of the 3 12-point 13mm bolts holding the hub assembly to the knuckle. One broke off half way down, the other broke off right at the head flush with the back of the knuckle.

I have been beating on the hub assembly (going to replace it) with a 30 pound maul and got one side loose where the bolt came out, but the side with the bolt broken at the head hasn't budged. I read somewhere on here that the "flared" out part of the OEM bolt won't pull through the bolt hole on the knuckle. Is this true? Will I be able to pull the wheel bearing off with the broken bolts still in it or do I have to drill the one out?

Please help, my 4 hour maintenence job has turned into a nightmare!!!:wierd:
 
I think you can use a bolt put against the "c" and the other end at the axle stub, then use your power-steering to press it out. There is a thread some wear on this.
 
Try using a cold chisel between the knuckle and the hub. There's a flange that extends about 1/4" into the knuckle but you can usually separate the mess with that. Start around the corners of the hub face, it usually doesn't do much for the stone shield but I had two very stubborn hubs and was able to separate them with the chisel and a 5 lb sledge. Heat the knuckle too, it'll help.

Good luck.
 
Tim_MN said:
The 3 bolts are through bolts, if you twist the head off, you can still get the hub off.
Click to expand...

Please disclose the technique to removig the hub with the broken bolts still connected. I have beat on this thing for numerous hours. The entire hub is loose, moves about 1/4" on the side that I got the bolt out. It hasn't budged at the corner with the bolt that broke off right at the head.

Unless someone tells me what the deal is before tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to remove the steering knuckle with the hub assembly and axle shaft still attatched and try to swap that out. Anyone foresee a problem with that?

If I run into much more trouble, my next thread will be in the wanted section. I will be looking for a few sticks of dynamite...

:repair:
:explosion
 
Tommy4949 said:
Please disclose the technique to removig the hub with the broken bolts still connected. I have beat on this thing for numerous hours. The entire hub is loose, moves about 1/4" on the side that I got the bolt out. It hasn't budged at the corner with the bolt that broke off right at the head.

Unless someone tells me what the deal is before tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to remove the steering knuckle with the hub assembly and axle shaft still attatched and try to swap that out. Anyone foresee a problem with that?

If I run into much more trouble, my next thread will be in the wanted section. I will be looking for a few sticks of dynamite...

:repair:
:explosion
Click to expand...
When this happened to me on my son's XJ, it was because rust had gotten into the bore, and expanded. The bolts are necked down, presumably to prevent them from seizing, and this usually is fine. But if enough moisture does get in, it also gives rust room to grow. The bolt was so thoroughly jammed in there that nothing would budge it. I finally had to take a cutting torch and cut the ear off the hub (fortunately in this case it was the hub bearing that was bad anyway). Once the hub was off, I still could not find a way to drive the stub of bolt out of the knuckle, and ended up burning it out inch bit by bit with a torch! It didn't punch loose until there was about an inch and a half left.

All I can recommend is that if you have any opening at all, even a little crack of separation between hub and knuckle, you drench it copiously with the best penetrant you can find, let it soak, and then, if it's pulled out at all, hammer it back in. Keep alternating in and out and soaking, in hope that it eventually works enough oil into the bore, and gradually works the bolt loose in the bore. If you have a little separation between knuckle and hub, try a cold chisel or other wedge. You can get a lot of leverage with a wedge. Grease it up, and aim it toward the stuck ear. Once you have any movement at all, even if it takes hours to get it all the way out by hammering it in and out, you have won the battle.

Otherwise, you may have to cut the hub ear off. You can use an abrasive wheel if you have no torch, but of course you have to be careful not to go too far and cut into the knuckle. Cut almost all the way, and you can probably part the final bit with a cold chisel. Then you can try to punch, drill, and otherwise persuade the remainder of the bolt out.
 
Matthew Currie said:
When this happened to me on my son's XJ, it was because rust had gotten into the bore, and expanded. The bolts are necked down, presumably to prevent them from seizing, and this usually is fine. But if enough moisture does get in, it also gives rust room to grow. The bolt was so thoroughly jammed in there that nothing would budge it. I finally had to take a cutting torch and cut the ear off the hub (fortunately in this case it was the hub bearing that was bad anyway). Once the hub was off, I still could not find a way to drive the stub of bolt out of the knuckle, and ended up burning it out inch bit by bit with a torch! It didn't punch loose until there was about an inch and a half left.

All I can recommend is that if you have any opening at all, even a little crack of separation between hub and knuckle, you drench it copiously with the best penetrant you can find, let it soak, and then, if it's pulled out at all, hammer it back in. Keep alternating in and out and soaking, in hope that it eventually works enough oil into the bore, and gradually works the bolt loose in the bore. If you have a little separation between knuckle and hub, try a cold chisel or other wedge. You can get a lot of leverage with a wedge. Grease it up, and aim it toward the stuck ear. Once you have any movement at all, even if it takes hours to get it all the way out by hammering it in and out, you have won the battle.

Otherwise, you may have to cut the hub ear off. You can use an abrasive wheel if you have no torch, but of course you have to be careful not to go too far and cut into the knuckle. Cut almost all the way, and you can probably part the final bit with a cold chisel. Then you can try to punch, drill, and otherwise persuade the remainder of the bolt out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. What is a cold chisel?
 
Tommy4949 said:
Thanks for the reply. What is a cold chisel?
Click to expand...
The kind of chisel you use to chisel on metal. For this purpose you would want one with a fairly narrow taper, not too blunt. The object is to get into the crack, and expand the gap without either mangling the parts or just bouncing out.

The cold chisels shown here would be typical, though for this work you would do better with sharper edges, since we're not worried here about the life of the edge, only the use of the wedge.
Cold%20Chisel.jpg
 
Thanks for the help. But I think I am going to try taking the entire knuckle, hub and axle shaft out of my other parts Jeep all in one piece and swapping them into the one I drive. Will I actually be able to get this thing out? I have to drive quite a ways to get there and don't want to waste a trip.

TIA
 
Tommy4949 said:
Thanks for the help. But I think I am going to try taking the entire knuckle, hub and axle shaft out of my other parts Jeep all in one piece and swapping them into the one I drive. Will I actually be able to get this thing out? I have to drive quite a ways to get there and don't want to waste a trip.

TIA
Click to expand...
I'm not sure about this. The knuckle has to drop down to disengage the studs on the ball joints. What I am not sure of, and hope someone else can answer, is whether this can be done with axle shaft in place. Try to figure out how long those studs are, and whether you can move the knuckle far enough before the axle shaft hits the axle tube.
 
when this has happened to one of my jeeps in the past we were able to remove the whole knuckle away from the axle with the axle shaft in it, all u have to do is turn the asxl so that the ujoin will bend down and it shosuld clear, when we did this to one of the tjs i owned it came out with no problem,hth as a suggestion when u install the ther knuckle or hub apply antiseize to the bolts, if u use the other knucklw take the hub bolts out and use antiseize and put them back in good luck
 
dinorl007 said:
when this has happened to one of my jeeps in the past we were able to remove the whole knuckle away from the axle with the axle shaft in it, all u have to do is turn the asxl so that the ujoin will bend down and it shosuld clear, when we did this to one of the tjs i owned it came out with no problem,hth as a suggestion when u install the ther knuckle or hub apply antiseize to the bolts, if u use the other knucklw take the hub bolts out and use antiseize and put them back in good luck
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I am begining to think I should have just swapped he entire axle. I thought just swapping the one piece passenger's side shaft with my disco shaft would be easier :laugh:
 
I went to take the knuckle/hub/axle shaft off to swap with my parts Jeep and got the idea to hack saw the broken bolts since I was able to get the hub loose. 15 minutes later, the hub was off. 45 minutes after that, the broken bolts were out of the knuckle. Now just have to wait for the diff seal to come in, change the u-joint and start putting things back together...
 
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