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DRIVE-AXLE INNER BEARING SERVICE.
Author: andy1canada (Show all albums)

As I've prefaced in the Mechanic's Corner thread, what follows is an amateur pictorial and description of my first attempt to grease the inner drive axle shaft conical bearing assemblies on #846.

There's likely some things I could have done better, or, differently and all are welcome to chime in with their own input to help make this a more useful reference to encourage other owners to do this important job on their own coach.

This is how I did it with what I had to work with. Good luck!
Show Newest Photos First | Show Oldest Photos First33 Photos - Page : [1] [2] [3]


These are likely Jim Black's notations on this page. Again, really important job to do; especially, if you don't know when/if it was done previously. Using today's higher quality grease products of your choice will likely extend the recommended service interval considerably. How much longer... do your research.


Thanks again to Dan Karnath for guiding me through this job and sending me these pics of his puller and snap-ring pliers. I've also included pics of the puller and pliers I bought and used. I couldn't find the 2-jaw puller like Dan used and wished I could have as the 3-jaw one I used was a bitch... but it worked in the end. These are the tools you need to do this job along with a couple of picks. Note: the split rings you'll be dealing with are large and high tension. The cheap lock ring pliers I bought would barely grab and hold both eye's. F'ing thing kept letting go, sending the ring flying off into the dirt. Do yourself a favour and take some vice-grips and carefully gently bend them both inwards towards each other - just a little. This will actually help them grip the rings better as you apply more tension on them.


Dan's 2-jaw puller. I couldn't find one so made do with the 3-jaw unit.


Note: Now that I've used the 3-jaw puller to do this, I discovered that if I ground down the 'hook' end on a grinder (dunking it often in water) to make a more slender/narrower hook - it was way easier to get it in between the shaft and the metal seal housing.




2-1/8" socket. I could only find local with a 1" drive so I reduced it down to 1/2" for my killer impact driver which I decided to use. NOTE: you will have to grind down the forward end of the socket to fit it down over the hex-nut after you wrestle out the cotter pin. You can see the radius I ground off of it on my 3/4" bench grinder. Have a cup of cold water handy and 'dunk' it often to keep it cool and tempered. Took about 10 mins to shape it.


'BIG-RED!'...love this tool but it makes so much torque it can not only bust shit, it can tear your arm off. Fortunately it has 4-torque settings and I learned the hard way to start low and work my way up if needed.


My impactor barely fit over the air-spring arms so I didn't need to take them off; regardless, they come off in minutes. NOTE: If you elect to do this job with the wheels off the coach, the drive-axle assembly will 'freewheel' as you try to turn it. I used a wide-jaw set of Vicegrips to lock & hold it to get the 2-1/8" nut off as can see clamped in place here. It wasn't great but with some messing around it worked. UPDATE: While trying to do the other side I was unable to get my wide-jaw vicegrips to hold fast while I used the impactor to screw down the big-nut. Drove me nuts. Gotta' figure a better way.


Getting ahead of myself here. FIRST ORDER OF THE DAY IS to unbolt the 4-bolts holding the propeller shaft to the drive axle yoke. Then hang/strap it up out of the way as you can see I did just above the top of the brake assembly.


Then get the nut off... As I have the wheels off the shaft spins freely when you try to take the yoke-nut off. I used a wide-jaw vicegrips to hold it and it worked on the first side I did. BE CAREFUL OF THE BRAKE-LINES!


...then the washer... NOTE: SEE THE COTTER PIN HOLE? (see next pic also) WHEN YOU REINSTALL THE YOKE - BE SURE THE COTTER PIN HOLE LINES-UP CORRECTLY WITH THE 'VALLEY' OF THE YOKE OR YOU WON'T GET THE COTTER PIN BACK IN! Don't ask how I discovered this. UPDATE: There a actually TWO cotter pin holes perpendicular to each other through the end of the shaft.


...then the yoke should slide off...
Show Newest Photos First | Show Oldest Photos First33 Photos - Page : [1] [2] [3]

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