Oh god, stuck CV axle on one side– bent punch…

[Lucia]

2006 Impreza WRX.

Last month, I noticed a torn boot on my cv axle. Decided to replace instead of repair. Ordered one from Advanced auto, swapped in- fine.
2 weeks ago, noticed a peculiar leak–turned out to be the cv axle seal. Alright, no problem. Bought one, went to go remove the cv axle again and it poped out of the race. (The cup w/ the male end is stuck. stuck.)

Tried all sorts of pry tools, trying to bite it out. It won’t come out.
Alright, fine, I go to google and read up. Turns out I can use a punch from the other side.

So, I went and did that. Bought a few punches, some of them to short so I use an extension backwards and now..bam it’s stuck.;-;

Here’s a pic of my stupidity.

View post on imgur.com

What do I do guys?

Topic

[scott37300]

I have one of these for CV axles and love it, http://www.amazon.com/OTC-7507-Joint-Removing-Adapter/dp/B0002SRFLC/ref=sr_1_28?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1362106630&sr=1-28&keywords=otc+slide+hammer. You use it with a slide hammer and it yanks the CV axle out. There is also an axle popper made by steck, I’ve never used it but it looks nice.

[Its me]

Punch it through… Don’t quit now since you are this deep. Put another cheap 3/8 socket extension on the male end of the extension and have your buddy wiggle/turn the shaft/cup and pull on it while you whack the #$## out of it… If the punch is not contacting the CV shaft and has bent against the side of the acorn, then tap it a bit lighter and see if you can bend/break the punch end (the weakest point of both the punch and extension, but you don’t want the punch end to break). However if the punch end breaks, then extract the remnants that way. If it bends enough, use vice grips and a hammer to pull it out….If the punch end breaks, fish it out…and never use that small a punch end to try to push out a CV shaft again…

If you are uncomfortable with doing the above mentioned, then get underneath the car with a pry bar and keep working on pushing that stuck axle shaft out… It will pop eventually… Just keep turning the shaft end and wiggle/jiggle and pop/whack the end of the pry bar… it will eventually come lose….

BTW…. I never recommend punching a CV shaft through the working parts….

Karl!

[spelunkerd]

I have no personal experience with doing this task. However Briansmobile1 on youtube did a video using a home made slide hammer from a nut that he welded to a the back end of a pair of vice grips. He uses some threaded rod, threaded into the nut, the vice grips grab the remaining part of the CV axle, and he uses a slide hammer technique. Within a few seconds the CV axle is out. I made that tool in ten minutes and it’s not often used in my shop but it would come in handy here. In your photo it looks like the seal is still be in place, so I would slide that out to try and give yourself a little more wiggle room. You should search Brian’s channel for that video before throwing in the towel. Also, if you haven’t already done it, I would check a dealers manual to see is there are any tricks for your device. Good luck!

[619DioFan]

First – get a ” good ” visegrip and clamp it to the end of the extension. slip a pry bar between the vise grip and case and pry the extension out ( hopefully the punch comes with it ) for removing the stuck cv axle – use two pry bars ( you will need a helper ) put one pry bar under each side of the joint and push with both at the same time. this should pop the axle out. if the punch is still in the case it may be loose enough now to get out ( probably need some long needle nose pliers.

[EricTheCarGuy]

The tool mentioned that Briansmobile1 used is actually commercially available (and this is how I would approach it). The vice grips are actually part of the slide hammer set. With situations like this you just need to knuckle down and get it done. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Author]

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