Dana 60 (stuck!) wheel bearing removal

Hello people,

Have been trying to change the bearings on my truck and have hit an impasse.
My axle 's a Dana 60 semi-floater, got as far as trying to bang the bearings out with a slide hammer and t-piece attachment. However it did NOT wanna go anywhere! worse, somehow, which i don't fully understand, the t-piece is stuck as well now - won't even move forwards




Anyway, not wanting to mess up the whole thing, i called a mobile mechanic out to see if he could help...
he couldn't. His only thoughts were/are heating up the axle tubes/dremeling the thing. However both methods will have to wait until i've drained the lpg tank which sits just behind.
Also in his original efforts with a drill, he's managed to leave a few scratches on the inside of the tube. - see the tube and around the base of the bearing itself. i know !
they're not too deep, but neither do i think they'll sand out easy....



So in this little pause while my lpg tanks are draining i thought i'd ask you guys if you had any ideas (other than knock the 'mechanic' on the head with a monkey wrench) on the matter?

They'd certainly be much appreciated!

Thanks

Heating it is a good idea. Nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

Other than getting at it from the inside, which seems impossible.

I would think you have the wrong t piece, to wide, especially if it is stuck and will not go either way. Take a punch and drive one end of the t piece back into the axle. That should free it up. I assume you already have the new bearing? Take the t piece and put it on the new bearing and see if it just fits on the outside of the bearing. The bearing should come out fairly easy with the correct puller.
The scratchs on the seal surface are no big deal. On seals that run right next to oil or lube I always take my finger and smear a real thin coat of RTV before installation.
Good Luck, hopefully by now you have the situation remedied.

One thing I find works magic with races that don't have a lip showing on the back of the pocket (or in your case, you can't get a punch at it at all) is to run a hot bead of weld around the race.
When the weld cools and shrinks the race will sometimes just fall right out.

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the advice. turns out you were absolutely right. The inner diameter of the axle tube behind/inside the bearing is less than outside and my t-piece was actually stuck slightly diagonally across. I knocked back one side and got it out, then cut down the t a bit so that it now sits within the tube flush against the bearing edges and!.......
the little bastard still doesn't wanna move!
am gunna try and get myself a bigger slide hammer possibly with a blowtorch as well.
Will get there eventually! It's definitely moving forwards at least!

also jim, thanks for the weld tip. duly noted!

Glad I could help, with the t piece you have you could get a piece of flat bar stock and drill a hole in it. span the bearing hole and use the nut on the t piece to pull with. If that makes sense?

Hey bruce,

Just to let u know i tried ure suggestion of the flatbar.... it bent the flatbar.
then i doubled up the flatbar.... it bent the two flat bars.
Then i got an industrial strength section of steel channel WITH the two flat bars....... it bent the t-piece!!

however alls well that ends well!!...




ended up grinding it out!

Needless to say the new ones not exactly in easy either!!
Next time this job comes around it's definitely going to the garage!

Thanks again for your help :)

Now that you have it out, clean up where the bearing seats with some fine emory cloth or even some 220 grit sand paper, get all of the rust and grime out of there. Then coat the new bearing with some NEVER Sieze. That will make it go in easer and make it easer for the next guy to get it out. You never know, the next guy might even be you.

Damn, that's almost as bad as what I had a number of years ago. Apparently in driving through some flooded areas after Hurricane Floyd, water got into the left rear wheel bearings. That fall on his way to the Vietnam Veterans Haunted Forest in Norfolk VA, the left duals locked up on my son, followed by some screeching from there. When I got the truck home and removed the left side wheels, and brake drum I could see evidence of a lot of heat on the inner part of the hub. Once I got it off I found the inner bearing was pretty well destroyed and had actually spun on the axle tube.

My supervisor at work had been an apprentice millwright, he stopped by and looked at and the next day set me up with the correct tools and supplies needed to hand work it in place. Other then needing a new seal every year as it would seep enough to fail VA state inspection, I ran it that way until I switched the entire assembly after building a 3.55 limited slip replacement.

I find that running a hot and heavy bead of weld around the race will usually shrink enough when it cools to end up with tolerance instead of the interference fit.

Sometimes the race you can't get behind just falls right out.