Stuck rear hub/stub axle

[pklym]

Trying to remove my rear hubs and backing plates to install 320i parts. The drivers side was easy, on the passenger side, I broke a wrench removing the axle nut and now have broke several pullers trying to get the hub off. I have heated the bejeebus out of it, applied lots of liquid wrench, and gone at it on several different days. I am to the point where the flange is distorted from the pullers but can't get it to budge. 

 

I just ordered a used stub axle and hub (and new bearings), so far I have only screwed up the flange but assume to get it of I will end up damaging the rest of all that. The question is, how can I get it off? Can I cut it off with an angle grinder? Where? I have tried 3 arm pullers and a hub puller (though I can't find anything strong to brace it to stop it from spinning). I really don't want to have to put things back together to take it to a shop just to get one fricken piece off. 

 

I have searched and read many threads about stuck rear hubs and tried all that I can see. The only thing I haven't done is get a larger hammer. If I need to go buy a 10lb sledge hammer I will. Would a slide hammer improve the situation versus a 3 arm puller or a hub puller that uses a wrench to tighten? Once I get this dang thing off I think I can finish the brakes in short order but this is driving me crazy. Tired of breaking tools and cursing.

 

I am in Portland if someone in the area has the magic touch.

 

Thanks,

Peter

[TobyB]

When they are that stuck, acetylene.  Heat the hub, let it cool.  Heat the hub, let it cool.  Heat the hub, try the puller again.

It's best to do it relatively dark, with the blue goggles, and stop heating just when you can see color in the hub.

 

if you've bent it already, no harm done if you overheat it.

 

You can also quench it, to try to shock it loose.

 

I've had to cut nuts off, but never a hub.  Yet.

 

All I got

(in a 60cf bottle,)

 

t

 

[pklym]

Blurg, I am not in a position to get an acetylene set-up at this point.

 

[Simeon]

MAP gas will do it. Remember you have the whole surface area of all of the splines, that's a lot of area to be sticky and hold up.  

 

I think it will need a combination of 'shocks' - chemical (apply liquid wrench when it is warm to be pulled into the gaps as it cools), heat (as Toby directs, heating and cooling), pull (apply the puller and get i under load when applying the other 'shocks').

[VWJake]

Heat, penetrants, and tension. And while it's under tension blows from a hammer almost anywhere on the offending part will help to move things along.

[grotflo]

I just went through this, though mine weren't quite as stuck as yours.  In the end, I used a 5-ton puller (loaner from Autozone), 36" breaker bar, MAP gas for about thirty minutes, and a 3lb copper hammer.  Put on puller, tighten with breaker bar, heat with MAP gas all around the hub for a few minutes, whack with the hammer, repeat.  Honestly, I'm not sure the hammer really helps, but the shock may have broken it loose a bit.  I'd crank the puller really tight, and as I heated around the hub, I could hear kind of a pop/crack as the parts began to break free a few thousandths of an inch at a time.  Once it stopped making noise, I'd return to the puller and tighten it a bit more, then come back with the torch.  It was a loooong process, but so rewarding when it finally came off.

[pklym]

Any best practices for keeping the hub from spinning while I wrench on it? I have wedged my breaker bar in there while using a regular wrench, but I really need to be using that on a puller. I've jammed some other various metal rods in between the studs to brace it, and that has worked to some extent, but eventually they seem to bend.

[grotflo]

I ended up placing a jack stand underneath one of the puller arms.  Basically wedge the jack stand between the puller arm and the ground to prevent it from spinning.  See rudimentary sketch below.

 

 

[pklym]

Finally got the bugger. Upgraded my torch to MAPP gas and borrowed a sledge hammer that was way too big for me to be wielding. About 10 minutes of heat and shocking back to cold plus a bunch of smacks did nothing. Another 15 minutes or so of heating and I started hearing some "tink"ing, and I new I was in business. It still took about 30 good whacks with the sledge to get anything to budge, but it happened.

 

Thanks for the assistance.