Inner axle shaft fixin

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89Suburban

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@89Suburban yea I have been beating my head on this thing for the past 3 weekends. I have never fought with something so much. I just need to get the race for the needle bearing out because I trashed the bearing pulling the shaft back out.

@George B I'll have to check that out.

I'm feeling your pain my man!!! GD shame you have to go through this. Should have been simple. We are all now better educated and can help the next victim. Sorry the answer showed up too late for you.
 

OR VietVet

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I should have watched techs in my shops do this procedure instead of suggesting here that I knew how to do it. I have seen the cir clips come out with the shaft, I guess only a couple times now that I think of it. I assumed, wrongfully though, that the cir clip was SUPPOSED to come out with the stub axle but now I see that it is not supposed to. What did not make sense to me is the PITA task of digging that clip out of there. Glad that cooler heads and smarter people figured it out and in the end, it will be correct. The key, that I read earlier, was when I saw that @Jobi-Wan Kenobi said that when the clip was on the shaft and completely compressed in the groove, it still did not compress enough to clear the splines. Well, DUH, on my part and I apologize to @Jobi-Wan Kenobi for all the wrong suggestions he had to endure. Gonna have to file this thread in the memory banks for sure.
 

Rocket Man

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If the bearing and seal are out, can you install the circlip somehow at that point? Like somebody said, maybe get it started in the hole and then use something to push it back until it pops into its groove?
 

George B

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I should have watched techs in my shops do this procedure instead of suggesting here that I knew how to do it. I have seen the cir clips come out with the shaft, I guess only a couple times now that I think of it. I assumed, wrongfully though, that the cir clip was SUPPOSED to come out with the stub axle but now I see that it is not supposed to. What did not make sense to me is the PITA task of digging that clip out of there. Glad that cooler heads and smarter people figured it out and in the end, it will be correct. The key, that I read earlier, was when I saw that @Jobi-Wan Kenobi said that when the clip was on the shaft and completely compressed in the groove, it still did not compress enough to clear the splines. Well, DUH, on my part and I apologize to @Jobi-Wan Kenobi for all the wrong suggestions he had to endure. Gonna have to file this thread in the memory banks for sure.
I also feel like a heel! I just did mine not long ago and didn’t remember until I went looking for the info I referenced.
 
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Jobi-Wan Kenobi

Jobi-Wan Kenobi

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Thanks guys. At least we've all learned something through this. Pulling the old cir clip out really wasn't even that hard. A long curved pick made it pretty easy. I just wish we had figured out this out sooner.

As far as install goes though, I'm thinking for sure start with the bearing and seal removed. This should give extra room to get my fingers or any tool in there to get the cir clip started. Then I can push it in with something. I was originally thinking just use the shaft. But I could pick up some wood dowel stock. I have a bushing driver set with one that might fit. And I have some long picks. The only thing I don't know is how well the cir clip is going to go through the splines when the diameter changes. Would the cir clip just compress and slide through there?

@OR VietVet you mention you've seen the cir clip come out with the shaft before. Any way you could get info on how your guys got the cir clip back in?

It'll be a few weeks before I'm able to work on it again so if anyone else comes up with suggestions I'd be interested to see what else others have to say.
 

OR VietVet

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Thanks guys. At least we've all learned something through this. Pulling the old cir clip out really wasn't even that hard. A long curved pick made it pretty easy. I just wish we had figured out this out sooner.

As far as install goes though, I'm thinking for sure start with the bearing and seal removed. This should give extra room to get my fingers or any tool in there to get the cir clip started. Then I can push it in with something. I was originally thinking just use the shaft. But I could pick up some wood dowel stock. I have a bushing driver set with one that might fit. And I have some long picks. The only thing I don't know is how well the cir clip is going to go through the splines when the diameter changes. Would the cir clip just compress and slide through there?

@OR VietVet you mention you've seen the cir clip come out with the shaft before. Any way you could get info on how your guys got the cir clip back in?

It'll be a few weeks before I'm able to work on it again so if anyone else comes up with suggestions I'd be interested to see what else others have to say.
This was years ago when I ran shops. The tech would show me and I would tell the customer what we wanted to do and then the tech would fix whatever initial problem there was. This was past my days of getting dirty. Never personally dealt with it but in my mind, it made sense to me that the cir clip goes on the shaft in a groove cut in the splines of the shaft and would compress as pushed in and then snap out to lock shaft in at the right time. I know a lot, some say just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to know that the clip goes in the housing first and then slide the shaft in. I am really surprised this has not come up before on this forum and some sage member didn't put us all in our place as to the correct install procedure. It is how we all learn and thank God for you tube at times. Again, in my mind, the cir clip is sprung steel. It will push outward as you slide in the carrier and want to push out against the splines there. You just push inward a little at a time in a circular pattern and eventually it will reach the groove it will sit in and wait for the shaft to be installed. I am sure there will be a loud round of applause here on the forum, when this all happens. HAPPY TRAILS!
 

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