I don't remember who's signature says "Experience is what you get three seconds after you need it!", but I'm living proof!

After servicing the differential and putting in new axle seals, I pulled the propeller shaft today to change the flex discs and the center bearing. Simple enough, right? Two things happened, on interesting and one not!

First when I unbolted the prop shaft, it came apart without any need to loosen the 46mm nut. Didn't see that coming. Second when I fixed the three jaw bearing puller to the center bearing, it exploded in to flying shrapnel! No injuries and no damage to the car, but again, didn't see that coming!

Problem is that the bearing disintegrated an the inner race is still on the shaft with no way to get anything in there to pull it off with!

I feel like an idiot for this, it could have been truly damaging to myself, and luckily it wasn't, but what do I do now to get the race off? I need a cold one!

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1980 300TD, SOLD
1984 300TD, 275K
1999 C230 K Black & Tan
2013 C250 Black
1974 CJ5 Red
You might faint from the fight, but you're gonna find it. Every challenge could have paradise behind it. -John Popper-

Did you remove the snap ring?

Dremel tool with cut-off wheel. Cut the race about 80% through, then crack it with a cold chisel.

You need heat.........and a lot of it............fast............so the race expands before the shaft can keep up.

The race will fall right off if the shaft is vertical.

An oxy-acetylene torch should do it.

good torch as Brian said is the easiest and quickest,if you dont have a torch and do have a hand held grinder you can grind thru it in one spot being careful not to grind into the shaft too much,if you do touch the shaft a tiny bit no harm done and the bearing will loose its fit and will come off.If you have the shaft held vertical it might slide off just from the heat from grinding on it.

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Red Green "This is only temporary,Unless it works!"

97 E300D 157000 miles
87 300TD ?141k? miles

............risky as hell for someone who has never done it.

I don't think I'd attempt it, myself. It's very difficult to know where the ID of the race is and the shaft begins...........that shaft doesn't have very much wall thickness.

Snap ring on the center bearing? I didn't see one, and everything I read about it says pull it off and press on the new bearing. I hope I didn't miss something!

It is risky, but I may not have a choice, I like qwerty's idea of a dremmel but how many disks would I have to use to get through a hardened race? That plus the cold chisel sounds closer to what I have available!

Agreed, but it may be necessary and I would take it slooow and steady!

My kingdom for an oxy-acetylene torch!!!

__________________
1980 300TD, SOLD
1984 300TD, 275K
1999 C230 K Black & Tan
2013 C250 Black
1974 CJ5 Red
You might faint from the fight, but you're gonna find it. Every challenge could have paradise behind it. -John Popper-

Take a closer look. Depending on year model, there could be a snap ring (aka circlip) in a groove in the shaft at the front side of the inner race.

One.

I can't, its in 20 pieces all over the garage!

__________________
1980 300TD, SOLD
1984 300TD, 275K
1999 C230 K Black & Tan
2013 C250 Black
1974 CJ5 Red
You might faint from the fight, but you're gonna find it. Every challenge could have paradise behind it. -John Popper-

If you have access to a welder, Arc or MiG, you can weld a bead on the inner race and it will just about fall off after that...

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Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

Unfortunately, no welder.

__________________
1980 300TD, SOLD
1984 300TD, 275K
1999 C230 K Black & Tan
2013 C250 Black
1974 CJ5 Red
You might faint from the fight, but you're gonna find it. Every challenge could have paradise behind it. -John Popper-

So it sounds like the bearing was removed before the C clip, which caused the "explosion"?

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Okay, now you got me thinking that I missed a step so I went and investigated.

The left side of the pic is the splines and shiny thing on the right is the race. All I did was remove a small rubber sleeve and the other half of the dust shield.

This is a close up of the shaft, no snap ring, no groove for he snap ring. The race hasn't moved at all. Did they make drive shafts without a snap ring?

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
1980 300TD, SOLD
1984 300TD, 275K
1999 C230 K Black & Tan
2013 C250 Black
1974 CJ5 Red
You might faint from the fight, but you're gonna find it. Every challenge could have paradise behind it. -John Popper-

Yes. Starting 08/1982.

Heat...

__________________
Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

If you haven't got heat I'd follow qwerty's advice in post #2 - cut off tool and cold chisel. Are you sure you can't get a pin punch on the edge of the bearing race?

It is difficult to tell from the picture but it looks like a gap to me => well I'd try and drive through it!

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!