Wheel bearing removal, driveshaft stuck.

Sam212001

Member
Hi,
Trying to replace my wheel bearing. Got to the part where I need to take the drive shaft out in order to be able to use the tools to pull the wheel bearing out.
This is where im stuck. Driveshaft refuses to come out. I've read I need a three leg puller to pull the driveshaft off. I've also read I need to take off the six spline nuts from the inner track rod end and then remove the whole driveshaft off.
Can I just use the three legged puller to get the driveshaft out or do I have to take the six spline nuts off and then take it off?
Any advice would be appreciated, been at it for two days now.
 

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Hi Sam

The threads to the spline / bearing are “ glued “ together in the factory . Add in a few years of corrosion and this can be amazing tight
You may need to remove the hub / drive shaft and take the whole lot down to a local garage to get them to press out the shaft
 
Hi Sam

The threads to the spline / bearing are “ glued “ together in the factory . Add in a few years of corrosion and this can be amazing tight
You may need to remove the hub / drive shaft and take the whole lot down to a local garage to get them to press out the shaft
Hi,
Bloody hell. Why does everything have to be this difficult with an a2. Gonna try with the three legged puller tmrw and if that fails smash the car to bits. Rrrrggghhh
 
Give the drive shaft a over night spray of release fuilds
There are a range of videos on YouTube showing how to remove the drive shaft from a tt , most are fairly brutal ... An sds drill , set the hammer with a needle point may work , if you can get your hands on one , impacting into the dimple on the face of the drive shaft . your trying to shock the drive shaft free , rather than push it .
I am passing down the M1 tomorrow night , and may be able the call in with a sds drill etc ....
 
Give the drive shaft a over night spray of release fuilds
There are a range of videos on YouTube showing how to remove the drive shaft from a tt , most are fairly brutal ... An sds drill , set the hammer with a needle point may work , if you can get your hands on one , impacting into the dimple on the face of the drive shaft . your trying to shock the drive shaft free , rather than push it .
I am passing down the M1 tomorrow night , and may be able the call in with a sds drill etc ....
Hi,
Thanks Mark. I can get hold of an sds drill. I'm gonna try again tmrw. What release fluid r u referring to?
Thanks for the replies. Driveshaft been doing my head in.
Will look at tt vids later
 
Old cars can test ,sometimes a cup of tea , and a step back work wonders

Realistically, this may require a large press to free
Wd40 can work , progas etc as a releasing , or a bit of heat to the bearing , which you are replacing
 
I've done a few of these and the releasing fluid will do little to nothing. Audi used an 'anti fretting' compound which is similar to nut lock, it is designed to stop the drive shaft moving in the wheel bearing splines.
The net affect is that a press is needed to push the shaft out of the bearing splines, hence the need to remove the gear box flange bolts such that the entire drive shaft and hub can be removed from the car and placed under a press to push out the CV joint shaft.
Alternatively a hub press is a better alternative if available, this bolts to the 5 wheel bolts and has a hydraulic cylinder in the middle which pushes out the shaft. I find that this needs to exert as much pressure as possible then hit the side of the CV joint with a 4lb hammer to provide a shock load, then wind up the pressure again on the hub pusher and hit the joint again. It normally takes a few hammer blows cycles before the pusher will manage to push the joint out on its own. The garage I borrow the pusher from also have an blunt air chisel that they use to apply shock loads on the CV joint, they say this is normally need on the VAG cars to get the joint out.
Its a pig of a job and near impossible without either a press (circa 50ton plus) or the hub pusher.

I never use the anti fretting compound when replacing and have never seen any adverse affects, and the shaft comes out with a small hammer tap :)

best of luck

Cheers
Paul
 
where can you get it for £50 to £70 ???
That is EXACTLY the tool that I used, garage said it was £240

Paul
 
Just a variation on the ideas above, if you have a SDS drill it may work in combination with a 3 leg puller to apply shock loading via the puller to the drive shaft. You'd need something like a 1/2" square drive to SDS adapter to act as the hammer head -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SDS-PLUS...924446?hash=item5d8ecf89de:g:ksUAAOSwVFlT3S2z

More novel uses of an SDS drill are covered in this youtube video -

Cheers Spike
 
Just a variation on the ideas above, if you have a SDS drill it may work in combination with a 3 leg puller to apply shock loading via the puller to the drive shaft. You'd need something like a 1/2" square drive to SDS adapter to act as the hammer head -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SDS-PLUS...924446?hash=item5d8ecf89de:g:ksUAAOSwVFlT3S2z

More novel uses of an SDS drill are covered in this youtube video -

Cheers Spike
Spike , that’s what I was thinking , the end of drive shaft has a dimple , which if you place a needle point onto , the sds drill the acts on the the drive shaft , am I pretty sure 22,000 inpacts in a min would freeit off with out the need for a hub puller .
 
Spike , that’s what I was thinking , the end of drive shaft has a dimple , which if you place a needle point onto , the sds drill the acts on the the drive shaft , am I pretty sure 22,000 inpacts in a min would freeit off with out the need for a hub puller .

You are under estimating how much the anti fretting compound bonds in the shaft on the splines
In conjunction with something that applied a large continuous load it may well work better than hitting the cv joint with a 4lb hammer but the ads on its own I think not
If you have one then give it a try you have nothing to loose

Cheers. Paul
 
Hi,
Trying to replace my wheel bearing. Got to the part where I need to take the drive shaft out in order to be able to use the tools to pull the wheel bearing out.
This is where im stuck. Driveshaft refuses to come out. I've read I need a three leg puller to pull the driveshaft off. I've also read I need to take off the six spline nuts from the inner track rod end and then remove the whole driveshaft off.
Can I just use the three legged puller to get the driveshaft out or do I have to take the six spline nuts off and then take it off?
Any advice would be appreciated, been at it for two days now.
My bearing replacement suffered the same problems
But was solved by the 4 lb club hammer & an old 1/2” drive 10” extension placed on the hub
nut after it had been loosened & then left flush with the end of the shaft, then standing with back to the wing holding the extension tightly give a hard blow with the hammer freed both of mine (factory glued) .
Keith.
 
This should do it:


Always worked for a 1.2Tdi and I always use Loctite 275 (as used by VW) - no choice as the nut is only 30Nm. A 1.2Tdi drive shaft end is about 2/3 the size of other A2/Lupo drive shafts. Clean off the old Loctite before reassembly otherwise you'll have problems getting the drive shaft through the hub.

RAB
 
I've been having the exact problem last weekend. I was shocked to see I bent the beam on my 12ton Press. I might look at some of those tools above. Cheers chaps.

IMG_3426.JPG
 
Progress update, or lack of progress update.
Went at it with the three legged puller. Did absolutely nothing to the drive shaft. Next step, sds drill with the bit on combined with puller.
 
Another update.
Ended up taking the whole driveshaft off and in the process messed the threads up on the driveshaft so will now need to buy a new drive shaft. Used an sds drill to try hammering it out. Didn't work.
 
I hate to say mate, but I told you so
The CV joints are available from ebay for about £15 complete and they are good quality, something like J&M as a brand (I may have the wrong letters, but the something & something is the format)
 
new joint also comes with boot, clips, grease, nut etc
No idea how they do it for £15 including free delivery
 
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