Hi there,

I was removing my rear cv joint as it was leaking grease.

It's easier to just change the whole shaft, which I'll do. I was using an 8 inch puller on the hub flange, but it shattered, so I reinstalled the 36mm nut until reinforcements arrived in the post (a hige hydraulic puller).

In the meantime, my rear wheel bearing has got really loose. (I wound the 36mm nut back hard with my impact gun, but didn't check the torque was 420nm)

I assume the 36mm nut is also holding the bearing halves together?

So i'm also thinking, if I use my 10 tonne hydraulic puller to push the half shaft out of the hub (which is what youtube videos do), what's to stop it just pulling the front half of the wheel bearing out of the hub instead?

ps i have now got a torque adaptor that goes to 360nm, which leaves me still guessing the last 60nm, but at that point it will so ridiculously tight i get a few more grunts will do it...

and I'll probably replace the wheel bearing too now as well.

 

Always use a hydraulic on a BMW especially if you live in snow area. Also I would change it all while in there anyway. What tool are you using to tighten axle nut, 420nm is not much. A decent impact can do that with ease.

 

Thanks for the reply.

This is an update and a bit of closure for my issue.

My first attempt to push the drive shaft (half shaft) out actually just pulled the wheel bearing apart a bit. So despite tightening up the hub nut again, the bearing was knackered. The handling was noticeably bad, after just a couple of miles and the wheel had noticable wobble when raised.

So, second attempt I pushed the half shaft out using a 10 tonne hydraulic puller. Removing the brake shoes helped get access for its legs. I'm in southern England so it's not really that snowy, and it didn't put up too much of a fight in the end.

I replaced the wheel bearing and axle hub, as at £12 each it was easier than trying to remove the old inner race. (OK I did actually remove it but ended up nicking it with my angle grinder)

The new half shaft went easily into the new axle and I didn't even need the puller tool I had ready (though if anyone is refitting used parts I suspect that tool would be needed).

Then it was onto tightening the 36mm axle nut, which requires 420Nm. My torque wrench goes up to 360Nm which I got to with a breaker bar and quite a lot of effort.

I marked it with paint and then switched to my 240v impact gun, which is rated for 450Nm. It's a generic Chinese one sold in various places- mine was branded vonhaus. It is a shameless occasional diy object. Anyway, it did nothing to tighten the nut- just rattled away for 20 seconds before faint smoke started to come out of the back.

So back to the socket, and I set an axle stand up to hold a T bar and put a 2 foot pipe over the 1/2 inch bar, and gave it as much force as I could (the issue being it rotating off the nut, but i was holding it on with one hand and putting my weight on it with the other).

I would say I tightened the nut by a further half a millimeter psst the paint? But the t bar was beginning to flex and I reckon I went way beyond the force I used to get to 360nm.

So on the basis that is all I could do, I peened the nut firmly into the slots and put it all back together.


So far so good, but I will keep my eye on the painted marks (until i can't be bothered anymore) to check there's no movement.


All in all, it wasn't terrible to work on, but I agree with the poster above that if the half shaft is coming out, then its just as well to do the wheel bearing at the same time.


Ian

 

Quite some time ago I invested in a blue point hub puller kit - with some determination, I managed to do mine.