7 replies to this topic

[kommander]

Does anyone have the dimensions of this tool?

 

I would like to have it made.

 

Would be a lot cheaper than purchasing.

 

Thanks.

[RooBoonix]

I used a fork type balljoint splitter!

 

Worked a treat. £8 from Halfords.

[paulrockliffe]

If you made sure it fitted around the drive shaft, a wedge of wood trimmed to fit would do the job I think?

 

I have this job to do shortly and was planing to try making my own.

[Northernpower]

If you made sure it fitted around the drive shaft, a wedge of wood trimmed to fit would do the job I think?

 

I have this job to do shortly and was planing to try making my own.

A wedge of wood will work if the shaft is not in too tight, but, if you've got a difficult one, sometimes even the proper tool struggles to get them out. If you make one, (from whatever material), make sure it pushes against the bolt heads and not the housing, if it doesn't, it could crack the housing.

[DomCr250]

Two foot long cold chisel and a four pound mallet - quick whack and it moves it off the circlips ... it's never failed for me.

[Ethel]

I use a big chisel too. The proper tool is just a lever with a U cut out to fit round the end entering the diff and a bit of bar welded on to act as a pivot on a couple of the end cover bolts. I reckon a bolster chisel would be fairly good as a starting point for homespun.

[panky]

Got one stuck in the gearbox I took off. Crow bars, chisels, wedges, ball joint fork. hammers even swearing wont shift it   

[tiger99]

The people who are using chisels etc against their diff casing are unknowingly distorting it, which will lead to all sorts of trouble later on. I believe that Rover and Haynes are explicit about NOT doing that. The ONLY correct place to apply the load is on the bottom diff side cover bolt, where the casting is intentionally strong enough. The improvised method which I have always used simply puts a 1/2" AF socket, 1/2" square drive to get the length right, on the head of that bolt, get a very strong tyre lever and place its tip against the back of the pot joint, back of lever against the socket, push hard and assist with one substantial hammer blow. A "dead" hammer that does not rebound, probably filled with lead shot, is ok. Small taps are useless, it needs one good whack to release the clip.

 

Ideally you would use a forked tool bearing on two diametrically opposed points so you are applying force on the shaft centre line, but applying the force at the bottom has always worked for me. If yo do make a forked plate, make sure that it has some little bumps on the tips so that it is making contact at the centre line, not at the bottom, otherwise you will gain no advantage over the tyre lever.