Dammit...dammit...dammit!

[Lowell W]

Freddie,

I just used a three arm, screw-type puller: Hooked the arms over the edge of the hub and pressed the axle out of the hub. You could take the whole upright and hub out of the car and put it in the hydraulic press, but you would still have to press on the hub flange to avoid putting pressure on the wheel bearing which supports the hub.

Your axles may not be as tight in the hubs as mine, but mine were awfully, awfully tight. I had to start by tightening the puller, then giving the center screw a rap, then tightening the puller some more, rapping the screw again, etc. There was quite a bit of Loc-tite in the splines, so maybe that was part of the problem.

If you do decide to remove the bolt from the top link, use a magic marker and mark a line on all the shims on one side of the link only. Then when you pull out the bolt and they go all over the floor, you'll be able to tell which ones went in front and which ones went behind the link, since there are several different thicknesses. With the bottom bolts out, the hub and upright will start to swing upwards as the hub comes off the axle stub. When it comes all the way off, you can just wire the upright up out of the way and you'll be able to pull the half shaft straight out.

You'll also need a torque wrench to install the new axle nuts. I believe SPF gives a figure of 270 ft# and Ford uses 250 ft#. A lot of 1/2" drive torque wrenches, including mine, go up to 250 ft# and I can't see how another 20 ft# could make much of a difference, especially if you run the old nuts down on top of the new ones. Another good suggestion, made by someone else, was to make some witness marks on the axle stub and the nut. That way, you can pop off the cap and look in there to be sure your axle nut hasn't moved.

Good luck,

Lowell