Thread: Axle removal problems...please help!!

That seems REALLY odd, and maybe Trannyman might shed some light on this. But if the output shaft is coming with the axle, you would have to be breaking loose the snap ring in the differential and the passenger side axle and Im not seeing that happen without there being some other issue.

You have to use a wedge like a chisel to force the differential off the snap ring of the output shaft so if your out put shaft is coming with the axle on the drivers side, that would scare me a bit. But also keep in mind, on the drivers side, the axle is a female end whereas on the passenger side it is a male end on the axle.

Im sure you know this since you stated you had pulled a few sets, but I just wanted to point that out as well.

Unfortunately I have seen this before as well as a local friend that ran into this, or we'll just say the aftermath of this. The output shaft has the same snap ring on both ends, but if the ring was expanded too much on the outer end where your axle goes in and the inner machined groove for the snap ring to sit in has a very rough edge it is really going to fight you. Worse cause the output shaft is going to have to come out with the axle and be put in a vise and then have a party with a mini sledge trying to crack it loose. The big concern about the output shaft coming out is that the snap ring on the diff end will want to drag over the plastic lube dam inside the trans and can easily break it if forced, so taking the diff out and removing that snap ring may be necessary to do at least as a safety measure. The trans that my friend saw this on had some really messed splines on the end because someone tried using vise-grips on the end of the shaft and destroyed it which made removal the next time near impossible just like what you are running into.