2002 S60 Another driver side axle adventure

[pierremcalpine]

As someone else suggested the key is to put constant pressure on while pulling. Rotating also helps. I was finally successful on mine with a roofing pry bar: the same kind Robert spinner uses in his video in the same topic.

[regent]

... is it open between the two such that you can drive a rod through from the RH side in order to "push" the LH axle out?...

Negative,
If you insert a drift, I think it will hit the internals (the differential mechanism is in between the shafts).

[bigbrain]

Hi Regent....I usually keep a scrap box of steel lying around....you never know when you'l need to make up a "volvo special" tool....most hardware stores should sell the stuff. From memory when I did mine the other side didn't have a retaining clip....it's just held in by the support bearing on the longer shaft. Have a look online....the retaining clip is supposed to compress onto the shaft when you pull it out. I don't know what would happen if the clip got damaged...wouldn't want to try to fish that out! My car has the manual gearbox but I think the retaining clip is the same on the auto boxes...basically what you need is for the clip to be centrally positioned on the shaft when you apply the force....of course you can't see that but thats whats needed. It's possible that the clip is damaged or stuck. I think what you need is constant leverage. I had a similar problem getting the crank pulley off my toyota...I tried all sorts but in the end resorted to making the locking tool...came straight off with that....prior to that I tried heat, air guns, electric impact socket guns...is the shaft still in it's original position?

[jcgirton]

The shaft is still in its original position... Hasn't budged - the boot for the inner axle is still in tact... If I buy a new cv axle can I pull the inner joint out of the new axle, then put it in the old axle and just attach the boot to the 1 part of the old axle that's still attached to the transmission? Or will the whole joint fall apart as soon as I pull it out?

[jimmy57]

i read somewhere that you don't want to remove both axles at the same or something inside could drop out of place. I find that hard to believe but thought I'd just throw that out there in case there really is something to it.

What is being referred to here is not true for 5 speeds. They use 4 differentil pinion (spider) gears.
ON some transaxles there is a risk that the axle gears can move out of position when both axles are out. The gear wouldn't fall out, it would move so that the splined opening where axle inserts into the gear would not be aligned with the differential case hole that you are looking through when axle is out.
You could use a blade screwdriver in the hole to move gears back in place. As I recall this is only true for 4 speed AWD transaxles and the 5 speed manual transaxles. The gears would not move in most cases unless the thrust washer is damaged. On these transaxles the axle and pinion gears use a plastic thrust washer under each gear. If the thrust washer cracks then the axle gears are loose. Usually the thrust washer pushes the gears towards center and the preload of this provides enough drag that gears stay in place.

[vtl]

Joint does not fall apart. Rebuilt axles have remachined working surfaces and use slightly larger bearings, so that could be a problem.

When you hammer the chisel, does the axle move at all?

[jcgirton]

When I hammer the chisel it does not come out any further at all. When I rotate and pull in certain positions it jiggles out a little more, however when I say jiggle I mean a TINY bit, it's still extremely secure in there...

I don't know if the jiggle is even the axle moving independently of what it's attached to in the transmission, if that makes sense... I could be wrong however

[vtl]

How far are you able to hammer the chisel? Can you make a photo?

I think it's a good sign that you can jiggle it a bit.

[bigbrain]

When I did it it was to replace leaking driveshaft seals and to change the gearbox fluid so I wanted to keep the joint together....the instructions that I was following said that the joint just pulls apart so you should just be able to degrease and reassemble "I think"....but didn't do this myself because I wanted to avoid the hassle.

[jcgirton]

So I put the passenger side back together, then jacked up just the one side of the car hoping the transmission wouldn't move as much when I was trying to hammer the pry bar in or maybe the other axle being in would put some kind of different pressure on the transmission - it probably doesn't look like a lot but compared to the pry bar refusing to go in at all before it seems like a lot of progress - but it still didn't come out...

I'm going to try to have someone else help pry from one side while I pry from the other tomorrow... So *hopefully* that does it...