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

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.