First Festiva. 90 Pop Yellow revival and build thread.

[Eviljimchicken]

Act two is going to be intense. That's all I can say.

[helloish12321]

Chapter 2 act 2: The Stubborn Axle

Chapter 2 act 2: The Stubborn Axle

It was a warm humid night.

At this point everything was ready to go back into the car for me to drive home. We just had to replace the axle and the knuckles could be bolted back on to drive home. I had taken the transmission out of my Integra a few times so I am no stranger to pulling cv axles out. I figured it would be a walk in the park.


We started off with a few firm tugs on the off chance it came out easy. We soon graduated to small pry bars mixed with tapping the metal end of the axle right outside of the transmission with a hammer. Nothing yet. We tried 2 separate pry bars on each side of the axle prying against the casing of the transmission. It still wouldn't pop out. The axle could move in and out about 1/8th inch as it was supposed to but the clip holding it in refused to give. This axle was pretty stuck.

At this point it was around 9:30 PM but we still had plenty of time to get the axle out, reassemble everything, and drive home.



We pried from various angles for another 15 minutes before deciding to get creative. What we needed was a slide hammer, but every auto parts store was closed.

Here is what remains of Axle Puller™ Rev. 1.0

Since the axle was already going out and needed replacing we decided to rip the ends of it out, just leaving the metal cup with the splines in the transmission. This allowed us to clamp Axle Puller 1.0 to the cup. The remains of a twist beam from a festiva rear beam were welded to the vise grips. An old flywheel placed around the beam and a stop was welded to the end, creating a make shift slide hammer. It was tricky to get it on but it gripped pretty well. Once we slid the flywheel to the stop at the end of the beam the grips would slide off. We had to innovate.


Axle Puller™ Rev 1.1 was destined to be the same tool with the ball joint from an old tie rod placed between the beam and vice grips. This would allow us to get a better angle on the axle and grip it harder. It was not meant to be. At 10:30 we ran out of welding wire.

It was growing later and later and we were getting low on energy.
A quick trip to Mc Donalds gave us the fuel to keep going.


Back at Jim's house we decided to pull the driver side axle to see what we could get to from the other side. The driver axle didn't want to come out but with gentle prying and some hammer taps it came right out. We began on Axle Puller™ Rev 2.0.

Axle Puller™ Rev 2.0 consisted of an old flathead screwdriver ground down very thin to fit through the differential. From there we could tap at it with a hammer, but we couldn't get at it too well. Prying at the axle while tapping through the differential was promising yet the axle remained. We needed more force


With limited energy we began on what would become Axle Puller™ Rev 3.0. The design at the time consisted of a chain with the flywheel bolted to one end. On the other end was a long bolt with a washer just small enough to fit through what remained of the axle joint. This was another promising design. The chain was threaded through where the axle should come through to the wheel well. From there I could swing the flywheel as the bolt was jammed into the axle joint. With a few swings the bolt kept flying out. The force was high enough to bend the bolt in the joint quite a bit but the bolt would not stay in place. Even so this was one seriously stuck axle.

At around 1:30 AM we called it a night.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2 act 3: tug of war

[helloish12321]

Chapter 2 act 3: Tug of War

Chapter 2 act 3: Tug of War

At 10AM the next morning we headed out to get welding wire.

Once we returned we created Axle Puller™ Rev. 3.1 Now with welds!


We welded the chain to a small piece of steel. The steel was then welded to the front face of what was left of the axle. The flywheel was bolted onto the other side of the chain. This was sure to work.



10-15 swings later, the weld broke and the axle was still in place.

This inspired our next tool.



Axle Puller™ Rev 3.2 Now with even MORE welds!

With more scrap steel we added a top and bottom support. They might not look great but they were strong. Theres only so much you can do while laying in the dirt. The chain was lined up and the flywheel was ready to pull.

The car shook on the stands as I swung the flywheel back again and again. The transmission mounts creaked in pain with every pull.
With each unsuccessful swing I swung the flywheel harder. And then.....




The bolt on the flywheel broke... The welds held strong but the flywheel was not enough to pull the axle out.
This is one very stuck axle.


Our slide hammer was not going to work with what we had available. We needed more force. A LOT more force. Constant pressure in a single direction strait out from the axle so that it could be pulled out evenly.

With this idea in mind we created our masterpiece. The greatest axle puller ever created. A true monument to the strength of the stubborn axle clip that stood between me and a drivable car to get me home.




At 4:30 on Sunday afternoon we built this.
I present to you Axle Puller Rev. 4.0™



Give me a lever long enough and I can remove an axle.

We fashioned a giant lever out of the legs of an engine crane, using the lock pin hole to bolt the chain to the leg. A bar was driven into the ground to assist the plywood as a fulcrum. Later the other leg was placed on the opposite side and fastened to the subframe to avoid pulling the car off of the stands.

We began to pull on each of our levers. Gradually increasing the force we applied until eventually each of us were using our body weight to pull down on the levers. Once again the transmission mounts creaked in pain as more force was applied.



I was prepared to dodge a flying axle, but after 5 minutes of pulling the axle still remained. The force we applied was enough to bend the 1 inch thick prybar we had driven into the ground. Jim's shed looked like a battlefield.

This workbench was clear when we started. We had torn into a scrap transmission to get an idea of what was going on in there. We couldn't see anything that would be wrong. Nothing from the other side of my transmission looked out of place, stuck, or seized. Just an incredibly stubborn clip.

Dirty, exhausted, and out of time, we called it a day.

[Eviljimchicken]

We are going to try to use https://www.amazon.com/OTC-7140-Half...d+axle+remover next in addition to the giant levers and chain.

I imagine when we get it out, the clip is going to have perfect splines cut into it lol.

We are quickly running out of options and may just put on a spare aspire trans unless someone here has a better idea.

I have never even heard of an axle being this stuck!

[w4rkry]

We are going to try to use https://www.amazon.com/OTC-7140-Half...d+axle+remover next in addition to the giant levers and chain.

I imagine when we get it out, the clip is going to have perfect splines cut into it lol.

We are quickly running out of options and may just put on a spare aspire trans unless someone here has a better idea.

I have never even heard of an axle being this stuck!

I have one that is this stuck. I ended up buying a low mileage OEM style Axle from another member, leaving my cup in, and just putting the other half of the new Axle into my cup, along with some new grease.
I don't think that is an option for you guys with all the weld damage to the cup tho haha. I look forward to seeing how it goes!

Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

[firebush357]

If you already have the Driver side out you can just put a bar through the trans and smack it with a hammer.

If the cup is being pulled one way more than the other then that clip is binding up. My technicians at work told me to take two pry bars and get one on each side of the cup and pry at the same time and give each one a little wiggle to rock the cup back and forth kinda and it should pop out.

[1990new]

A long youtube video and it is about a Honda but you play it and listen to the explanation and I think it might help.
I guess the key is to get something to get around that shaft that goes through the center of the differential enough to make solid contact with the axle.
The tool should work as long as it is designed correctly with the right diameter and make sure it is contacting the axle and not the teeth on the spider gear.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll8z7FLtcoY


Keep those ingenious ideas coming folks...

[firebush357]

Maybe something like this?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPR0R86rvuc

[1990new]

Just talked to eviljim on the phone a little while ago and pounding heavily on a big screwdriver through the differential did not get the axle to budge.
helloish has order the split tool that straddles the differential shaft so that the tool makes contact on both sides of the axle and they are hoping that will do the trick.

[helloish12321]

OTC 7140 Axle Removal Tool

Thanks for the suggestions.

Jim and I got a pretty good idea of what it looks like in the transmission using my new axle and the diff from his scrap transmission. Even with a diff outside of a transmission we couldn't really see the clip holding the axle in.

I think firebush357 is right in that everything we have tried is pulling the axle out unevenly, causing it to bind somehow no matter how hard we pull.

On Tuesday I tried strapping a sledgehammer to the chain and swinging as hard as I could with some distance between me and the car. All it accomplished was breaking the ratchet mechanism of the strap. It definitely seemed to be pulling it unevenly.


I decided to bite the bullet and buy the OTC 7140 tool after that. It was either that or spend time making an imperfect tool, and I'm a little short on time.

The tool came in the mail today. Here are some pictures of it. Its smaller than I expected and I'm not sure if it will work as is or require some modification. But it looks promising.











Im going to head over to Jim's after work tomorrow to give it a shot.

I am planning on using this tool along with an air hammer and the crane leg lever to pull the axle as I push from the other side. If anything can get this axle out while the transmission is in the car this is going to be it. Lets hope it works!

[Safety Guy]

I feel as though I've been reading The Odyssey! Except there are no Sirens. You need some Sirens, as long as you are chained to that stuck axle so you can't swim to them and be killed!

Looking forward to the successful denouement.

Karl

[helloish12321]

Axle Removal Continues

It's been a while since I last updated. Here is everything that has happened since the last update.



I took the OTC 7140 tool to Jim's house the day after my last post. When I got there we found out that the tool was just barely too wide in diameter to fit.
Using Jim's scrap transmission differential we could see that the tool was getting stuck on the spider gears. It was so close to fitting.
Rather than trying to grind it down we figured we would try to have a machine shop lathe it down.

On Monday, Jim took the tool to a machine shop he knew of. They told him that it should be ready on Tuesday and it shouldn't cost much just to lathe it down.
Tuesday came and they hadn't called about the tool.


It was Friday before we were able to get the tool back. On Saturday morning I headed over to Jim's house to give the tool a try. I wish I had taken some pictures first but i figured I would take pictures of the tool afterwards.


We started with a small air hammer mixed with prying using our engine crane levers. Nothing happened. I decided the best way was to use a 2x4 pressed onto the tool and hit it with my 4 lb hammer.
After 10 solid swings nothing seemed to happen so we went to pull the tool out and see what we could do.

The tool was stuck. Something must have bent, jamming it into the diff. Nothing seemed to snap or break but either way it was stuck in there. And we weren't about to try making a slide hammer and welding to it to get it out of there. I have personally had enough of that lol.



The transmission had to come out. The plan was to use a spare Aspire transmission Jim had laying around while we tried to salvage this transmission.
We started by pulling the Aspire trans off of the aspire engine.

The transmission came off no problem but once it was off there was one big problem. The input shaft had about an inch of play in it. The bearings inside must have disintegrated. Jim told me that when he drained the trans there was hardly any fluid in it. Well that would explain it.
So much for using the Aspire transmission.


After that we cleaned up and prepared to drop my transmission out of my car. Surprisingly nothing went wrong and a few hours later the transmission was out of the car. And man was this thing greasy.

We pulled the casing apart to find that the transmission was in amazing condition

Keep in mind this picture was taken later after giving to transmission a good wash, so there is some water on the inside. The synchros look to be in great shape.
Before we opened the casing up we felt for play in the input shaft. There was absolutely no play. This transmission is definitely worth salvaging.


I took it home and spent most of my Sunday morning cleaning the transmission. The amount of dirt grease and oil was incredible. I gave up on scrubbing it and just decided to scrape the grease off with paper towels and then wash it with soapy water.

After it dried in the driveway for a bit, I took it inside and decided to see how far I could get with dismantling the transmission without any research. I had taken my Acura Integra transmission apart so I thought this couldn't be too hard. I know I wont be able to get the differential out with the axle stuck, but I was thinking about sawing the cup of the axle off to be able to pull the diff out. If I can pull most of the innards out it would make sawing through it easier to do with less weight. Also a clean transmission is a happy transmission.





Here you can see the tool stuck into the other side of the differential.



I was able to pull the shifter assembly, reverse gear, reverse lever, and lots of small things out until I hit a roadblock. In my honda transmission all of the shift forks would slide out with the input and output shafts. But here it seems like the shift forks are held into the casing somewhere that I can't quite see, preventing either shaft from sliding out.

That is as far as I got today. I'm going to try searching around to find out how to tear down one of these transmissions. Hopefully I can have it back together by tomorrow to start cutting through this axle to release the differential from it's oily prison.

[w4rkry]

You should get a Factory Service Manual on ebay. It will have all the steps you need to tear down the entire car, including the trans. Well worth it!

Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

[Dex~]

Man this is giving me anxiety about pulling my trans when I replace the clutch.

I've got a lot to do to the Batstiva before it's anywhere near as nice as yours but at least I can start tearing into now that the Omnimax is back on the road (a friend of mine is dialing in the new Weber while I'm stuck at work today)

Those Pop Yellow Stiva's look great with the bumpers and trim sprayed gloss black btw once you get the important mechanical bits done of course

[Eviljimchicken]

Man this is giving me anxiety about pulling my trans when I replace the clutch.

I've got a lot to do to the Batstiva before it's anywhere near as nice as yours but at least I can start tearing into now that the Omnimax is back on the road (a friend of mine is dialing in the new Weber while I'm stuck at work today)

Those Pop Yellow Stiva's look great with the bumpers and trim sprayed gloss black btw once you get the important mechanical bits done of course

Pulling the trans in these cars is a piece of cake with just a jack... just as long as the axles come out lol. Actually, i'm fairly certain that you can drop the trans without taking the axles out.

What type of paint did you use on the bumpers? How is it holding up? As far as i know, painting the bumpers usually doesn't last due to the oils in the plastic or something.