1930 Rear Hub Removal

[Erndog]

I need to remove the rear wheels of my 1930 Model 61. I am by no means new to the process, but have never had such a difficult time of it!  I have tried many methods over the last 18 months or so, to no avail. Not having a Buick original hub puller, I had to resort to a three legged puller, which was less than satisfactory. I did the usual application of a lot of tension, followed by many hefty raps on the end of the puller screw with a sledge hammer. This was done both cold and with heat. Unfortunately, I do not have access to an oxy-acetylene setup, so I had to resort to a lot of MAP gas application. I decided to have a machine shop build me an original style puller that screws onto the hubcap threads. After a long time of thread measurements, thread depth measurements, thinking, etc, the machinist's opinion was that the risk of stripping the threads was too great to risk, considering how difficult the process had already been. We opted to make the puller in the attached photo. It is comprised of very good steel and appears to be a good design. However, the results are still the same. I figured maybe the wheel I was trying just had it's own issues, so I moved to the opposite wheel. Exactly the same results. For the record, no, the emergency brake is not applied, and yes, the nut is backed off, but on enough to protect the axle threads. I have tried spraying Kroil and Liquid Wrench up into the shaft area, but as completely expected, no effect. The taper on the shaft is very slight and being nearly 100 years old doesn't help.

 

Am I overlooking something or doing something wrong??? Is it just a matter of not enough applied heat? I don't want to do any damage to anything and I feel I have approached the dangerous end of applied pressure.
Any advice? I know this is not the first case like this.

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:38 PM by Erndog (see edit history)

[Robert Engle]

I had one brake drum on my 1932 56S l that I could not get the drum removed.  I ended up dropping the differential cover and removed the center block and the axle retainers.  I then pulled the drum and axle out  and took it to an industrial machine shop and they put it in their arbor press and applied lots of heat to get the drum removed.

 

I can't explain why some ant to stick and others don't.  It may be that someone in the past applied excess torque on installation.

 

Bob Engle

[Erndog]

Thanks. Nice to know that I'm not alone in this. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

[Erndog]

For the record, I also tried rapping all around the hub with a small 3 pound sledge hammer while while maintaining the hub under pressure, with the thought of loosening up the tapered joint.

[DonMicheletti]

Have you tried to really whacked the end of the puller bolt with a heavy sledge?  Worked for me.

[Erndog]

1 minute ago, DonMicheletti said:

Have you tried to really whacked the end of the puller bolt with a heavy sledge?  Worked for me.

Many many many times. Not one bit of movement.

[EmTee]

I had a similar experience with the pitman arm on my '38.  Finally, I gave up and just left the puller under tension and closed the garage.  Next morning, I found the puller laying on the floor and the pitman arm was loose...

[Mark Shaw]

Have your machine shop make a puller with a slot & clamp as shown.  

[Erndog]

1 minute ago, Mark Shaw said:

Have your machine shop make a puller with a slot & clamp as shown.  

That was the original intent, but the machinist said the threads were not deep enough to hold up to how stuck the hubs are in my case. I absolutely do not want to strip those shallow threads off.

[edinmass]

Not an uncommon issue………use a SNAP ON air hammer on the end……the rapid hard vibration will often times make it release……..cheap air hammers don’t hit very hard like a snap on unit……..

[Erndog]

Just so I'm not missing something here before I invest nearly $1,000 in an oxy-acetylene rig.

The only thing I need to "do" prior to pulling the hub is remove the axle nut and ensure the brakes are off, i.e. hub spins freely. Correct?

 

I hope I haven't damaged the spider gears with all the intense whacking I have done to the end of the shaft.

[Robert Engle]

On my 32-56S, I had one drum so tight that I couldn't break it free with my 10 ton Portapar.  I ended up removing the center block in the differential and pushed the drum and axel in and removed the two halfmoon keepers and then I pulled the drum and axle out.  I took the drum and axle to a machine shop and they were able to break the drum free.  Upon inspecting the half moon keepers a saw I had stress cracked them.  Fortunately I had spares to use.  

 

The spider gears shouldn't be affected as the axle end will pushed in against the center retaining block, not the spider gears. 

 

Bob Engle

[Oldtech]

If you don't have a torch, before you spend a lot of money, try tightening everything as much as you dare then just use a heat gun / paint stripper to heat the hub. It's no torch but 15 or 20 min with one of those on high will get it pretty warm. You never know, might be all it needs.