Stuck - removing RH driveaxle from bearing mount

[awmccready]

I am stuck again on my 97 camry le, 4 cyl, auto, abs, having exceeded the details provided in my Haynes manual. Removing the outer end of the passenger driveaxle was easy. It slid right out. However, after I took out the nut holding the driveaxle in the bearing mount, the driveaxle bearing remains stuck in the mount, apparently rusted in.

With my camry up on stands, for many hours, I have used WD-40, pry bars, screwdrivers, hammers, punches, etc. trying to coax that bearing out and the attached driveaxle with it.

Any advice, cautions, etc. would be appreciated...I am stuck.

In the meantime, I am considering doing the following:
1. Seeing what leaving the WD40 on all night might have accomplished.

2. Applying heat with a propane torch to the bearing mount, hoping the mount will expand faster than the bearing race, freeing the driveaxle.

3. Removing or at least dropping down the exhaust pipe, which is blocking tool access to the differential side of the bearing mount. If I just drop down the engine end, the pipe will still be partially in the way. Removing the whole aging exhaust may be more difficult than the driveaxle.

4. Removing the rear engine mount bracket, which has the bearing mount integrated into it, along with the driveaxle that is stuck in it, so that I can better get at the problem area. I realize that I have to use a jack somewhere under the engine to take the load off the mount, then support the engine after the mount is removed. I am leery of doing this. I am not sure where to support the engine. The mount and bracket are huge and heavy. That assembly may be even more difficult to re-install.

[mobes]

I struggled with mine as well, I just ended up dropping the tranny with the axle still in place then driving it out from the tranny end with a dead blow. Even then it took me a few solid minutes of pounding on it. Be sure when you reassemble it to clean up the bearing and carrier with emery cloth and use anti-sieze. After I did that mine will just pull out. Good luck!

[Pineapple]

Remove the whole mount.

[awmccready]

mobes:

Thanks for the quick reply.

By dropping the tranny, do you mean the whole transmission or just the pan?

If you took the whole tranny out, did this mean that you shifted your tranny towards the driver's side, away from the passenger side driveaxle, then down and out, so that you could pound on the end of the driveaxle extension with the tranny out of the way? Did you take your tranny all of the way out?

On my camry the passenger driveaxle goes through a 2-3" round hole (the bearing mount), in the rear engine mount. That is, the engine mount is also the bearing mount for the passenger drive axle. So releasing the whole tranny would still leave the driveaxle solidly hung by the engine mount/bearing mount. The driveaxle extension on mine is not supposed to be attached to anything inside the tranny that would hold the driveaxle in. When I look at it, the replacement driveaxle doesn't have anything on that end, like a ring clip, either.

WD-40 overnight made no difference. Heat made no difference. I can't get any leverage with a ball joint separator.

In any case, your reply helps quite a bit. I need all the info and options I can get.

[awmccready]

Pineapple,

Thanks for your quick advice.

On my camry the integrated engine/bearing mount bracket attaches to the top of the engine mount rubber with a single nut. However, I can't see that nut from the top of the engine. I can only feel it and I am not sure yet that I can reach down to it with a socket. I'm checking that out.

I don't see enough room to pull the engine/bearing mount bracket and the rubber mount together down and out with the driveaxle. I also don't know whether there will be enough play in the engine/bearing mount bracket, with the driveaxle in it and the tranny, to move vertically enough to clear the stud in the engine mount rubber. The rubber engine mount sits on a horizontal frame member, so I am not sure whether I could drop the rubber down enough to free the bracket.

If you can shed any additional light on this I would appreciate it.

Thanks again.

[Ratko]

I know this may sound simple, but did you remove the snapring that holds the inner axle bearing in place?

[awmccready]

Ratko,

Actually, that is a great question and just the kind I am looking for.

However, yes, I removed that ring before I tried to pull the driveaxle out of the differential housing and the engine/bearing mount bracket. That is exactly how stuck the driveaxle feels...as though the ring were still there.

Thanks.

[Pineapple]

Oh, I pull mine out with the cross member removed. Don't know if you can get to the bolts without removing x-member. The bolts holding the x-member are hard to remove. My 200lb impact gun can't get it out.

[awmccready]

Thanks. I'll look into that.

I haven't been able to get to the upper right bolt on the engine/bearing bracket. I can get a wrench on it, but can't even get one click on the ratchet. From above the engine, I did get to the nut on the top of the rubber mount.

Consequently, for the time being, I am continuing to try various ways to get the driveaxle bearing out of the mount. I'd hate to tow it to a shop, but that may be what I end up doing.

[mobes]

Originally Posted by awmccready

mobes:

Thanks for the quick reply.

By dropping the tranny, do you mean the whole transmission or just the pan?

If you took the whole tranny out, did this mean that you shifted your tranny towards the driver's side, away from the passenger side driveaxle, then down and out, so that you could pound on the end of the driveaxle extension with the tranny out of the way? Did you take your tranny all of the way out?

On my camry the passenger driveaxle goes through a 2-3" round hole (the bearing mount), in the rear engine mount. That is, the engine mount is also the bearing mount for the passenger drive axle. So releasing the whole tranny would still leave the driveaxle solidly hung by the engine mount/bearing mount. The driveaxle extension on mine is not supposed to be attached to anything inside the tranny that would hold the driveaxle in. When I look at it, the replacement driveaxle doesn't have anything on that end, like a ring clip, either.

WD-40 overnight made no difference. Heat made no difference. I can't get any leverage with a ball joint separator.

In any case, your reply helps quite a bit. I need all the info and options I can get.

I dropped the whole tranny (I was swapping it anyway), so that I could hammer on the end of the axle. My carrier/rear mount is set up the same way.

[awmccready]

I am no longer stuck. Here are my results to date:

I first considered a full boot, but when I found a split boot with a lifetime guarantee (joke), I decided to try that first. A full boot requires dissembling that part of the driveaxle and my Haynes manual said that Toyota recommends taking the whole driveaxle out of the vehicle anyhow before replacing full boots. So, remanufactured driveaxles looked like less work. Appearances can be deceiving and it depends on who you talk to. A Toyota dealer mechanic asked me why I was taking the whole driveaxle out of the vehicle, because the dealer changes the boots without removing the whole driveaxles.
When the split boots didn't even come close, I decided to try replacing the whole left and right axles. Other people said that when one boot goes, the other may not be far behind, although in my case, it appeared that both inner boots were better shielded than the outer boots. But again, appearances can be deceiving and I don't want to have to do this again for a long time.

Both axles came out of the hubs with no effort required.

However, the passenger side driveaxle bearing on the extension shaft was severely rusted into the bearing mount. With the car up on jack stands, it was extremely difficult getting to that part of the driveaxle to pound it out. I finally bought a super penetrating oil after no results with the Pepboys Proline spray. It still took many many many tries over several days. I had to wedge and pound on multiple tools, e.g., ball joint separator, wood splitter wedge, etc., between the bearing mount and the big driveaxle weight to the wheel side of the bearing mount, because nothing fit well. I didn't have the room to get a good hit with a hammer. I finally had some success putting the points of the ball joint separator on the big driveaxle weight and was able to pound almost horizontally towards the passenger wheel.

I had trouble getting the driver side driveaxle out of the differential housing also, until I inserted the points (fork ends) of the ball separator into the space between the driveaxle weight and the differential housing and pounded on the end of the ball separator with a very large hammer. The wedge shape easily forced the driveaxle out. Brute force using my legs on a pry bar as shown in the Haynes manual did not work. That driveaxle was held in by a ring clip on the end of the shaft. The passenger side driveaxle by design does not have that ring clip, or a groove to hold it.

Installing the passenger side remanufactured driveaxle took some time. I had to work quite a while cleaning out the rust from the bearing mount with emory paper and the penetrating oil. Then I had to pound on the outer end of the driveaxle with a hammer and a block of thick plywood to keep from damaging the end. I hope this is what you are supposed to do, but I saw no other way to force the new bearing on the remanufactured driveaxle into the bearing mount, even after I cleaned it with emery cloth. I also applied a thin coating of high temperature lithium grease to the inside of the bearing mount and the outside of the driveaxle bearing. I assume that the outside of the bearing is NOT supposed to rotate inside of the bearing mount and needs a tight fit.

When I went to install the remanufactured driver side driveaxle, I found that it lacked a dust shield, although both of the original Toyota driveaxles have one and the remanufactured passenger side did too. The remanufacturer's specs say they replace the dust shields. Consequently, I must now return that driveaxle and try to get one with the dust shield. I won't install the driveaxle without the dust shield. That will probably take another business day or two, because nobody, except one Advance Auto Parts store had them in stock.

[awmccready]

FYI results part 2:

On another forum, someone was having trouble getting their split ring removed on the passenger side, and getting the differential housing side of the driver side driveaxle all the way into the differential housing so that the clip ring popped into the groove in the housing.

Here was my response (there is some duplication with my previous posting):

AZW,

I have successfully removed both driveaxles and installed remanufactured driveaxles in their place.

Yes, I saw and removed this split ring, as well as the bearing mount bolt, which keeps the bearing race (?) from rotating. The split ring is apparently still necessary on the 97 to hold the driveaxle firmly into the differential housing. The part of the shaft on that passenger driveaxle that fits into the differential housing does NOT have a clip ring, as does the driver's side. The driver's side driveaxle of course does not have a bearing mount with split ring to hold it firmly into the differential housing.

My split ring on the passenger side was not stuck, as yours is. However, it was not easy positioning pliers on the ring ends to get the ring out. One side of your ring may be stuck for several reasons, e.g., (1) it is rusted in place, (2) the bearing is pressing against only that side and not the other. Some possibilities are: the bearing was not installed all the way in the mount; the bearing has shifted during use; you may have previously pounded on the driveaxle.

It seems most likely that the ring is just rusted in place. In that case, applying a super penetrating oil, such as Blaster (my local Pepboys store had it) and tapping lightly will work, although it may take time and several applications.

While waiting for the penetrating oil to work, you may want to carefully horizontally (approximately) insert a blunt tool, e.g., a metal punch, against the stuck side of the ring, and pound on it towards the differential housing. I would avoid letting the tool directly hit the inner part of the bearing, as this may make the bearing harder to remove by expanding it against the bearing mount.

A tip for re-installing the split ring is to pre-position the ring on the driveaxle before inserting the driveaxle back through the bearing mount. Then use some thin wire to wrap around the ends of the split ring to draw them together. After the driveaxle is back through the bearing mount far enough to allow the split ring to be held in place, cut the wire and the ring will spring into place.

I tried a WD-40 generic many times on both sides of the bearing after I removed the split ring, but it didn't work. That's when I got the Blaster super penetrating oil from Pepboys, but it still took many applications and a lot of pounding with several different tools. For example, I used the points of a ball joint separator wedged between the bearing mount and the big weight that is located on the driveaxle between the bearing mount and the passenger wheel. I also used combinations of other tools to create a similar wedge effect between the bearing mount and that weight. However, after the bearing gets dislodged and moves about a 1/16", the wedges were holding the bearing from moving any further out of the mount. Consequently, I then kept applying more penetrating oil and using the ball joint separator points to pound almost horizontally against the big driveaxle weight towards the passenger wheel. Though I was working with the car up on jack stands and not a lift, I was still able to use a rock hammer to get good solid hits on the ball joint separator. I wished I had done that earlier.

Another tip on the passenger side is to thoroughly clean the inside of the bearing mount with penetrating oil and emery paper to remove all traces of rust, before installing a replacement axle. I also applied a very light coating of high temperature grease on the inside of the bearing mount and the outside of the bearing on the driveaxle. Even so, I had to use a thick piece of plywood and a hammer to carefully pound on the hub end of the driveaxle to force the driveaxle bearing into the bearing mount, keeping the driveaxle as straight as possible. Then I put a little of that grease around both sides of the bearing while it was in the bearing mount to act as a seal and help keep contaminants out in the future.

On the driver's side, I first found that I had to rotate the driveaxle as I was inserting it carefully into the differential housing, through the rubber seal. When the driveaxle then moved noticeably inward, it was of course stopped by the clip ring on the end of the axle. Shoving the axle with my hands didn't provide enough force to get the clip ring in far enough to pop into the groove inside the differential housing. Consequently, I placed a block of thick plywood (which resists splitting better) over the hub end of the driveaxle, aligned the axle as straight as possible, then carefully struck the hub end of the driveaxle through the plywood with a hammer, just enough to pop the clip ring into its grove in the differential housing. This worked right away.

However, after starting the other end of the driver's side driveaxle into the hub, I found that I could not force the hub assembly ball-joint studs back onto the control arm, even with a pry bar pressing down on the control arm. Eventually, when I tried rotating the driveaxle several times, I found that the driveaxle compressed its length, and I was then able to easily get the ball-joint studs on the hub assembly into the holes on the control arm.

As a precaution, I also put a very light coating of high temperature grease on the hub side shaft of both driveaxles before inserting them into the hub. I also put a very light coating of grease into the hub hole. I would be very careful doing this, because you do NOT want any grease to move from that area onto your disc rotors and then onto your pads. Once the pads get contaminated, braking power may be severely diminished.

NOTE: I had no problems getting the driveaxles out of the hubs, when I started removal. The hub ends were only very slightly rusted and almost fell out themselves.

I have been driving the car for the last several days and have had no problems

[jeffinchrist]

96 Camry-RH: had to cut shaft in half to remove, put in vice to hammer frozen bearing out of carrier housing; LH side: Definitely use a slap hammer after cutting off the shaft at the inner boot. The claws will have to grip the outside of the housing, as there is nothing inside to set the teeth of the puller jaws into. Prybars didn’t work for me, and I had to cut off the shaft nut as well. Removing the strut from the steering knuckle was fine (instead of the tie rod, etc.), and I had to loosen the strut at the top to create clearance for the slaphammer.