Swing Axle Removal

This article is only relevant to swing axle gearboxes and is put together as a guide through the steps involved with the removal of the axle assembly from the gearbox.

Before you start, it's worth knowing what you are looking at / working with, so have a quick look at these exploded diagrams. It's also worth having a Haynes manual knocking about for further reference / option.

There are a selection of tools you will / may need:

• 13mm socket
• 15mm socket (or whatever is applicable to the bolts used to fit your bearing caps)
• Extension bar
• Ratchet (to suit the above)
• A few blocks of wood (for chocking, blocking and drifting)
• A lump hammer and an angle grinder OR
• An internal fitting bearing puller (the variants of which are described below)
• A pair of decent circlip pliers, to fit a 65mm inside diameter circlip
• A few rags, some gloves and some cleaning solvent (brake cleaner / degreaser)

By the time you are reading this, it is assumed that the gearbox is removed from the car, the brake assembly is off (and therefore the bearing cap has been removed, along with the seals and washers) and the gearbox oil is drained. The latter of those is done by simply removing the drain plug from the bottom of the case (17mm hex/allen key), which is easiest done with the gearbox still in the car as you will be able to get a bucket underneath it.

You should have something that looks a little like this in front of you, albeit it with two axles fitted, rather than one!

Step one - Remove the axle retainer plate

This is a simple job of removing the 6 13mm nuts that hold it in place. It's essential that you do this in rotation (a couple of turns on opposing nuts) to keep the retainer plate from skewing under the pressure. I usually do it in the order of (hours on a clock (12,4,8,2,6,10).

You will see that I've also removed the outer clip that holds the axle boot on the axle tube (usually either the factory ear clips or a jubilee clip). As mine were to be renewed, I then completely removed them by cutting it with a knife. You don't need to do this - only if you are renewing them. If the original once piece boots are serviceable, keep them! You won't get a better boot than the OEM one piece!

with the retainer plate removed from the gearbox, you will see something like this:

So we then need to remove the axle tube, which is now only held in place by the bearing on the axle:

Let the fun begin!

Step two - Bearing removal

There's a number of ways to remove the bearing and each has it's pros and cons. The reality is that with most methods it's a bit of a pig; the bearings have no doubt been in place for many many miles.

I'll order the options in line with the amount /cost of equipment involved, starting with the highest - Sadly, the further down you go, the more effort involved! Whichever method you use, please remember to remove the spacer that sits behind the bearing (24 in the exploded diagram) and keep it somewhere safe.

1. Using an internal fitting split collet type bearing puller

This is the best way of doing the job as it requires no modification of the bearing and simply slots into the housing with it in place. The downside to this method is the cost, as the equipment alone is likely to set you back £200+, if you can find a supplier.

2. Using an internal fitting blind bearing puller.

This is a very good option as you can either buy the tool relatively cheaply (circa £30) or make one, as shown in the second picture.

In order to use this method, you simple drill an 8mm hole in the bearing (between the inner and outer shell, in between two of the ball bearings), slot the ball end in the hole, twist it round and put it to action.

3. Using an angle grinder and 3 legged puller

Now in actual fact, this method requires a bit of the method below and a great amount of care. If you damage the bearing housing at all you've ruined it; it won't seal again.

In order to use this method, you'll need expose the bearing shell a touch in order to cut and grab it without damaging the axle tube / bearing carrier. This can be achieved by either using the method described below to slide the bearing down the axle, or by doing it in reverse. With the axle in place, there's about 15mm of inwards movement it can take before it reaches the back of the side gear in the 'box. As such, you can can drive the axle towards the 'box, effectively using the axle tube to drift the bearing down the axle.

There's a couple of words of precaution about this though:

• If you drive the axle too far inwards, you will damage the side gears and potentially the diff - bad news!
• You MUST ensure that in the process of driving the axle inwards (whacking it with a hammer) you protect the threaded end. You can do this by winding the hub nut on with the crowned end first (upside down) and using a good block of wood for further protection. If you don't do this you have a very good chance of warping the threads on the axle, rendering it useless.

So, with either the axle pushed in a few mm, or the axle tube pushed out a few mm, you'll then need to do the reverse action to display the bearing. That means you need to knock the axle tube back towards the gearbox for the first method or pull the axle back out for the second. Either way should be OK as the main resistance is the interference fit between the axle and bearing inner shell.

Now you're ready to take a grinder, fitted with a nice thick grinding disc and cut 3 slots for your puller legs to slot into, as shown in the pic.

This is a risky method but I've used it in the past as it was the only option I had available to me that didn't involve with buying more tools or swinging a hammer for an hour!

4. The hammer and power method

This is a fairly long winded, tough and rough way of doing things, but I've done it before and it worked. Admittedly it might be easier/tougher in some cases, depending on just how stuck your bearings are. In essence, the theory is to use the axle tube as a drift to drive the bearing off the axle.

In order to do this, you need to have removed the 6 nuts on the retainer plate and armed yourself with a lump hammer and a few blocks of wood for protection. The arrow on the image below shows which direction you want to be driving the axle tube:

As you would expect, if you try and do this with the gearbox insecurely fastened to anything you'll lose the effect of your blows as they will get absorbed in the movement of the box. I found the easiest way to do this is to butt the axle up against the garage wall, with a hub nut on the shaft and a block of wood between the axle and wall (again, to protect the threaded end) and use the wall to stop the 'box moving in the direction of the hammer blows.

This really is a very hard way to do things. It's not only hard work but it's quite risky to be swinging a lump hammer at full pelt next to your soft magnesium-alloy gearbox casing and is pretty much just a PITA! for the sake of a few quid, I'd be opting for option 2 or 3....

Step three - Axle Tube removal

I shouldn't need to write anything here as the tube should pretty easily slide off the axle now, leaving you with the bare axle poking out the box. You can also remove the plastic 'daisy' from the gearbox side plate.

Store the axle tube somewhere safe - You don't need to mark them side to side as they will only correctly fit on one side (with the shock tower facing down and forwards). Inspect the daisies for wear - if they look knackered, order some new ones. They are cheap enough to replace but act as a bearing between the axle tube and side plate.

Step four - Axle removal

If you take a look in the side of the 'box, where the axle tube once sat against the side plate, you will see something like this (albeit a little dirtier, no doubt):

The key thing to notice is the two eyes of the retaining circlip (you can only see one in the picture, at the 5 o'clock position). This needs to be removed in order to get your axle out, so grab your circlip pliers and carefully remove it. You can then remove the thrust washer that sits between the circlip and the side gear.

The axle, fulcrum plates and side gear are now ready to slide out. This may happen with them all as one, or the axle may slide out, leaving the others in the box; Either way is fine. If it's the latter, put the axle down somewhere and drawer the fulcrum plates and side gear out with your hand. You should then have something that looks like this (complete):

And this separated out:

Left to right, you've got the side gear, fulcrum plates, thrust washer and circlip. Obviously the axle is underneath! Now degrease these parts and write which side they came off, so you know for re-assembly - I would pop the side gear, fulcrum plates, thrust washer and circip in a little sandwich bag to keep them safe. We'll inspect them for wear before re-assembly...

Step five - Repeat on the other side!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away in the forums.