I do not like prying on aluminum. Like trying to pop out axles from the transaxle with a lever. I have tried it on Fiero and Nissans and always chicken out. Seems like you cannot really put two levers at once on the pot joint housing to achieve an even withdrawal. I know others have no problem and have seen the great thread in this forum where the axle is said to come out easily. I once tried 10 times on an NX 2000 by hand and finally did it , but not worth it. Finally I made a slide hammer puller and it is sweet to use. Actually I only "made" the shaft part which anyone can do. I have also seen the fine slide hammer shown by another member. I only show this one ( I hope if my first pic attempt works) in hopes it helps someone.
Since I am not as flexible as once the big advantage to mine is you can crouch out near the brake and really bang away. It is alway a surprise how hard the hammer blows are to pop the bad boys out. Usually 3-4 hard bangs. It is important to seat the fingers properly on the pot joint housing and take all the slack out of the finger. washers and nuts so that the impact may be directed into the shaft and circlip holding the axle in. The shaft is 35" long. Mine was scrounged from a trash compacter (anyone remember them?), but long threaded stock should do. Somewhere I picked up the fork (finger). It is shown in the Fiero manual . My fork has pn 72-761 etched on it but no google source came up. Someone said Auto Zone will loan it. For my NX I made a simple plate with U cutout. Maybe you could make something for the Fiero, but the convex pot housing means only line contact if you use a flat plate. A warning : the Fiero axle splines will take out your seal if you do not put some kind of support under the (heavy) shaft as you bang it out. Is enjoy the right word? Hope so.
[This message has been edited by hobbywrench (edited 02-04-2013).]
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08:22 PM
PFF
System Bot
82-T/A [At Work] Member
Posts: 22846 From: Florida USA Registered: Aug 2002
I do not like prying on aluminum. Like trying to pop out axles from the transaxle with a lever. I have tried it on Fiero and Nissans and always chicken out. Seems like you cannot really put two levers at once on the pot joint housing to achieve an even withdrawal. I know others have no problem and have seen the great thread in this forum where the axle is said to come out easily. I once tried 10 times on an NX 2000 by hand and finally did it , but not worth it. Finally I made a slide hammer puller and it is sweet to use. Actually I only "made" the shaft part which anyone can do. I have also seen the fine slide hammer shown by another member. I only show this one ( I hope if my first pic attempt works) in hopes it helps someone.
Since I am not as flexible as once the big advantage to mine is you can crouch out near the brake and really bang away. It is alway a surprise how hard the hammer blows are to pop the bad boys out. Usually 3-4 hard bangs. It is important to seat the fingers properly on the pot joint housing and take all the slack out of the finger. washers and nuts so that the impact may be directed into the shaft and circlip holding the axle in. The shaft is 35" long. Mine was scrounged from a trash compacter (anyone remember them?), but long threaded stock should do. Somewhere I picked up the fork (finger). It is shown in the Fiero manual . My fork has pn 72-761 etched on it but no google source came up. Someone said Auto Zone will loan it. For my NX I made a simple plate with U cutout. Maybe you could make something for the Fiero, but the convex pot housing means only line contact if you use a flat plate. A warning : the Fiero axle splines will take out your seal if you do not put some kind of support under the (heavy) shaft as you bang it out. Is enjoy the right word? Hope so. Sorry I can't seem to attach the 2 pics. Someone tell me how
Hi Hobby, are you talking about popping the axles out of the transmission? In the Fiero, at least on my 5-Speed, popping them out is an understatement. It was effortless I used a wooden stick that my grandmother used to use to stick in that hole to keep the washing machine running as she threw clothes in it. It's real easy... you don't have to worry about damaging it.
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09:42 PM
lateFormula Member
Posts: 1048 From: Detroit Rock City Registered: Jul 2002
I usually manage to just pop them out but I had to use a slide hammer and crows foot on a Cougar front axle. No way was that puppy coming out by prying on it
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
If you used the PIP program to upload the picture, and it got to the point where it said 'OK', the image link should be automatically pasted to your clipboard. All you should have to do at that point is right click in the 'Your Reply' box (where you type the message when you post in a thread) and hit 'paste', or Ctrl+v while the typing cursor is in the reply box. All pictures previously posted through the program are under the 'History' button.
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08:59 PM
PFF
System Bot
Patrick Member
Posts: 36478 From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Registered: Apr 99
The reason I designed the tool was that I had no experience "popping" the drive axle and my jack stands left insufficient room under the car to use a long pry bar plus the taper on the end of the CV joint makes it hard to apply pressure. The local machine shop cut two plates of 1/8" steel, 3" wide and 12" long. They drilled both 1 1/2" from the end one 2" diameter hole the other 1 3/8". The holes I cut out to the end of the plates. I drilled a 1/2" hole in one plate about half way up and drilled two 1/4" holes close to the plain ends of both plates. I bolted the plates loosely together at the plain end and put a 1/2" dia. bolt through the drilled plate so that I could force the two plates apart.
The plate with the smaller fork I slid up against the CV and the larger diameter fork over the tranny side. By using the bolt to spread the plates I could apply a constant pressure to the drive axle and by using a 2' wrecking bar I could apply a "popping" pressure to further force the plates apart. This tool made the job really easy and protected the CV joint and the Transmission and seal from damage. Feel free to post this and if anyone wants to borrow my tool I'd be glad to lend it. By the way I bought a 30mm socket to remove my hub nuts but in fact I think mine were actually 29mm but I couldn't find a 29mm socket.
If you used the PIP program to upload the picture, and it got to the point where it said 'OK', the image link should be automatically pasted to your clipboard. All you should have to do at that point is right click in the 'Your Reply' box (where you type the message when you post in a thread) and hit 'paste', or Ctrl+v while the typing cursor is in the reply box. All pictures previously posted through the program are under the 'History' button.
RWD, Once again thanks for staying with me. This forum is great but I am spoiled by the easy sw on other forums.
I made my own puller .1 stick of 3/4 all thread with the U part of an exhaust hanger welded to the end of the all thread works every time.
fierofan, great idea , and you are using a slide hammer on the threaded stock?
Patrick, thanks for posting the Pete Rose tool. Very nice and just the ticket for centering the circlip and shaft. I am always pleased with such ingenuity of these two tools. I hope readers will take them to heart for an otherwise tedious task.
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10:57 AM
Grantman Member
Posts: 1418 From: Brownton, Minnesota, USA Registered: Dec 2011