Help Installing Rear Axles

[phildo]

I just finished my rear wheel bearings and I am stuck on reinstalling the rear axles. The splined portion will not fit back into the hub. I have cleaned the splines on both the hub and the axle and applied anti-seize lubricant to both sides as well. I've hammered them a bit from the differential side and I have made some progress, but I'm afraid of doing harm to the axle itself.

When removing them I used a 3 claw puller to hook onto the hub and push the axle out, and it definitely was difficult doing that. But for the reinstall, that tool obviously won't work because i need to pull instead of push.

Any advice/help would be appreciated.

[koe30]

I just lubed mine it up with a bunch of axle grease and gently hammered it in. It took a while but after i got the first half in it sped up quite a bit. I don't think it was harmful to the cv joint.

[PiercedE30]

Yea, when I put my E30M3 axle stubs in, I had a hell of a time getting the passenger side cv shaft in. I would get it started as best as you could, then smack them until you can get enough thread showing to throw the axle nut on and pull it the rest of the way.

[phildo]

So to update, I continued hitting it from the diff side. And then I started smacking it closer to the hub where there is a small lip. I'm sure I broke something. Well I thought I finally got enough thread to start the collar nut but for whatever reason it would not get started. And I knew I had plenty of room. So I took the axle completely off again to see if it would get started and sure enough it would not (using a new collar nut). So whatever reason the threads on the axle are messed up.

I'm a bit afraid I messed up the wheel bearings. When I put the rotor, wheel etc on and bolt it down, there is play in the wheel. Now the axle is not in place yet, but I was wondering if this is the sign of a bad bearing. I know that when everything is installed, you can jack up a wheel and test for play, and if there is then it is a bad bearing. I just want to know if that is the same when the axle is not in there.

[dashboardmonkey]

use an air chisel with the punch bit in it

[phildo]

Since I hate posts without any resolution, here is what I finally did yesterday to get my axles on. I got yet another set of axles. One side actually fit it with just some pushing and a bit of hammering. The other side was stuck again, so I bolted the 6 hex bolts up to the diff and drove around the block really slowly. This pushed in the axle another inch into the hub and then I was able to hammer lightly the rest of the way on the lip of the axle. Was able to drive around a little bit last night and it wasn't spitting axle grease everywhere so hopefully that is done.

Thanks all for the advice.

[jrdeamicis]

Look for the wheel bearing tool. It has the threaded tool in it to pull in the half shaft.