I was trying to remove the axel shaft from the runner tonight but have had no luck. I followed chiltons but it still will not come out.
I even built a david's sst to knock out the studs but there is just not enough clearence to get it out! what do I do? I am just short of pulling the Stering arm off but I don't want to do that.

By the way it is an 87.
David

 

Solid axle or IFS?
Were in Germany are you?

 

IFS :cry:
I am in Mannheim. Are you in the Netherlands like it says? What part?

 

remove the 4 nuts from the upper a-arm that hold the balljoint on and unbolt the shock, that should let you drop the lower arm enough to get the shaft out without having to mess with the studs or the steering arm.

 

I watch a toyota mechanic change out my axle and he had a trick. After removing the shock and disconnecting the sway bar, he used my bottle jack to push down the a-arm (that was actually my idea based on schaefer's trick) and jammed a piece of of wood into the bumpstop to keep the a-arm down. With a little bit of wiggling, he finally got the axle out.

 

Yes, disconnect the swaybar too. Gee, how could have I ever forgotten that? Oh ya, I tossed it years ago!

IMO the 4 nuts are a lot easier to remove and replace than finding a jack to squeeze between the arms. When you remove those the lower arm will drop freely, watch out it's heavy as the knuckle drops with it.

 

Have you guys ever heard from the wife (while your standing there greassy and iritated from something not working) "All you do is work on that Damn truck", Or "Oh Great what's broken now?" etc etc.
LoL


I think I heard those 4 times last night when I was trying to pull that thing loose!
But a good day without her would never compair to a bad day with her!

Here's to the wonderfull Women in out lives!
David

 

I live in Schinveld, some 30 min. from Aachen. My routeplanner sys its 315 Km.
Sounds like your wife is related to mine. That could have been her words.:pat:

 

My ancestors are from the netherlands also
My name (DeGroot) growing up I thought my great grandfather was a mean guy (this is actualy going somewhere) because he never spoke to any of the kids but then I found out from my mom that the poor guy just never learned english... He only spoke Dutch!

By the way I got the shaft out (had to make another new tool though ) but the tierod would still not loosen ( so I did it without releasing it.) then I put the wrong grease in the wrong ends and then went and got as much of the stuf switched as i could. tomorrow is "put it all back together day"

I think we shoud start a page about sst's that we have built for our trucks!

DAvid

 

Nice area, I spent 4 years stationed at vliegbasis Volkel. There's nothing like carnival in 'den bosch and maastricht. David if you have a chance get up there for it.

 

I didn't undo the ball joints. I jacked up under the lower a-arm to get as flat a-arm angle as possible. Then it just had enough play to take apart. Oh yeah - knock the studs off the axle to get another .5 inch clearance for the CV to come out. I replaced my studs with same sized bolts so I won't have to pound them out in the future.

 

this was one of the sst's I made I tool a 24" piece of steel rod about .25" in diameter and welded a socket to it the same size as those nuts that way I can leave the nuts a lille bit on and take the "new sst" and tap them out without having to try to wedge the hammer in there . it sticks out about 2 inches past the brake disk.

When I was in the military I was a driver of Heavy equipment transports and when they were doing the major downsizing here I had to runn alot of missons into the neitherlands (masstricht, Viservien (SPL), Enshede (SPL) were some of the favorite places,
I think it was Masstricht had a wonderfull little pub called "DeGroote" Kinda one of those places that grow on your heart...
David

 

You should not need to undo the knuckle.

Undo the 6 17mm bolts at the star shaped flange, then take off the hub and undo the snap ring.

I then untension the torsion bar and jack the A-arm UP to make it flat. I think that jacking it down would make things even harder, perhaps impossible?

Have you tried tapping on the end of the shaft from the hub end?

As was said, replace the hardware, that will make doing this on the trail way easier.

The first time that I swapped them, I dropped the diff a little bit to get more wiggle room, might try that too.

 

My findings were the exact opposite... less room if I tried to push it up.

 

Guess I will have to give that a go next time.

 

Since I work in Maastricht I have to agree its a nice old city.
And about the SST's. I recently purchased the entire (old) inventory from a Toyota dealer. So now I'm the proud owner of some 20-30 boxes of different SSt's, from diff setup sets to bearing pullers. I've got em all.
Just wanted to rub it in, since I allready made lots off SSt's so I know what a pain that can be. And also made several mistakes with fluids and grease.....:pat:
One of the drawbacks when you live in a country were weed is legal....

 

think jiffy lube in the US is bad! LOL

too bad you are so far away! we could build some fun stuff!

 

I find the very best way is to unbolt the 4 bolts that bolt the lower ball joint to the lower control arm, disconnect the sway bar and shock and then pull the knuckle out of the way.. Don't forget, there is a c-clip on the end of the shaft that you have to pull your locking hub off to get to if you have dumped the ADD plates..

 

300Km isn't that far! I regularly drive like 700 Km a day. But I agree that's it a long way for a quik visit. How long are you stationed in Europe?
I plan on starting my coil over Suzuki-Toyota hybrid soon (all yota parts except the frame and body). I have all parts, except for the engine. And cash. But all tools he he. Lathe, TiG, Mig etc.
Now just some cash and a helping hand could come in nice..