Axle shaft replacement conundrum
 

Hi All - Last week I noticed a bit of odd front end vibration on my 2002 X5 3.0 with 39K miles on it. Upon inspection the left side CV joint boot was torn, grease all over the back of the wheel, so I decided to replace the entire axle shaft.

I just did this job a year ago on my other X5, a 2005 3.0, and all went smoothly. This time around has been a little different. Everything has taken longer and nothing has come off easily. On the 05 I was able to get the axle shaft out of the hub with just a drift and hand sledge, this time it was an absolute bear. I needed a 7 ton puller.

While using the puller, it looks like I crunched the wheel hub dust cover and pulled it away from where it should be. It's now loose on the hub, with about 1/4 " of exposed area that shouldn't be there.

Here's my question/concern - is there any chance that while trying to push the axle shaft out of the hub that I somehow pulled the hub away a bit? Seems unlikely, but it definitely took a lot more force than I thought to push it out. Photos of what I'm looking at are below.

Sincerely hoping that all I'll need to do is get that dust cover repositioned ... I really don't want to pull that hub if it's avoidable. Thanks in advance for any advice or words of wisdom from others who have been there.

Chris
Lockhart TX

Looking at this image (from AutoDoc) it seems you have simply pulled the dust cover outwards, given the relative positions of the hub face and the dust cover edge...

https://cdn.club.autodoc.de/optimize.../32030/s23.jpg

Yes, hopefully you can get the dust cover back on. The amount of pressure needed to pull that off is not much. Really next time you should get an axle puller that threads into the hub wheel stud holes and pushes the axle through the hub. Hammering it through is not the answer either because that can be hard on the bearing. A puller tool to pull the axle back through is nice to have as well.

Lesson learned ... I definitely wouldn't use the three-jaw puller again. Is there a particular axle puller tool that you use for this task and is it something BMW-specific? And is there any worry of destroying the threads on the studs or hub? I was surprised at how much force it took to get the axle out. It was a real bear.

Interestingly, all of the DIY writeups and videos I looked at either hammer the axle out of the hub (the vast majority seem to take this approach) or use a puller. Looking at it now, I don't know how someone could use a puller of the type I did without f-ing up that dust cover.

The Bentley manual recommends pulling the whole steering knuckle and driveshaft out together and pressing it out, which seems unnecessarily complicated.

Thanks very much,
Chris

It's just a regular axle puller plate but you just need to make sure it's big enough to span the holes, some are not. I have never heard of someone pulling the threads in the hub. If I didn't have a puller I think I would go with an air hammer instead which would let the mass of the hub help reduce the impact to the bearing but you still risk taking some life away from the wheel bearing. From the pics of the dust cover you didn't apply very much pressure, likely just a crappy puller. Did you have any trouble getting the new axle through far enough to get a good start on the nut ?

That's my first hope. My second is that I can get it securely back in place and unbent from the damage the puller did. :-)

Best regards,
Chris

Here is a description of the tool you need and good description of what works..

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...xle-hub-2.html

80s - Is the photo below the sort of puller you recommend? I'll be sure to have one on hand for the next time this job comes around. I'm a little ticked at myself that I used the wrong tool on the advice of a stupid YouTube video ... should have checked in here first.

I haven't gotten the new axle yet - ordered a GKN which is the same as the one I used on my 05 that's now got a solid 20K on it with no issues. The axle went back into the hub very easily last time, but if I run into any trouble this time around I'm going to order the CV Axle Shaft Puller / Wheel Bearing Hub Installer Kit from FCP Euro which looks like it would do the trick.

Any other tips or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks again,
Chris

Yes, that is the type of puller plate I used.

Me too - from this set: -

https://www.topmaq.co.nz/content/pro...high&width=448

Slide hammer, plates. three jaw pullers etc. - very handy.

I didn't use my lug bolts to secure the plate - I purchased some cheap metric hardware for that, rather than damage the lug bolt cones.