spindle stuck

[85blueox]

What is the best way to get a 25+ year stuck front spindle loose without destroying something? It's off my 85 bullnose F350 4x4, anyone's guess when the last time it was off.

[Nothing Special]

Supposedly you can whack on it with a mallet, work it back and forth and get it off that way.  But I haven't ever had that work on one that was actually stuck.

Also I hear people talk about getting a slide hammer with an adapter that threads onto the end of the spindle.  People say that works well (personally I've never tried it).

What I've done can be hard to put together if you don't have the resources, but it's easy to use once you have it.  I took a 3/8" thick steel plate and bored a hole just big enough to slip over the spindle (that's that hard part, getting that plate ready).  Then I put some standoffs between the plate and the knuckle (deep-well impact sockets work great for this) and tightened a spindle nut on it as tight as I reasonably could (you don't have to go nuts with an impact wrench or anything, just get it tight with a breaker bar).  Then take a big hammer and whack the plate right on top of each standoff.  Hit each one two or three times.  Then retighten the spindle nut, re-whack on the standoffs and keep repeating that process.  You might not get much movement of the nut each time, but anything you get is progress (and progress is good!).  I've never had it take more than 5~10 minutes of this once I had it set up.

If/when you do get it apart, clean it up good with a wire wheel or something, and then use anti-seize liberally.  They usually come off by hand the next time if you do this.

[Pete Whitstone]

I've done what Bob describes - built a tool. Here is what that came out looking like.



I also built a slide hammer tool, but the spindle just laughed at it.

I can ship the tool in the picture out to you if you promise to ship it back - you pay shipping both ways. It WILL get your parts separated. I'm in N TX if you are local to that area, no shipping needed if that's the case.

[85blueox]

That's a good offer, let me work on it tomorrow, if not I will take you up on that.

Thanks

[85blueox]

I got it off.  40 years of abuse, now I need to do ball joints and axle U-joint is floppy as a dead fish.

[Gary Lewis]

[Pete Whitstone]

Glad it came off. What finally worked?

[AmericanSavage]

Glad you got it off.  I used the Bob tool method mentioned.  It was moderately successful, but definitely helped.  

There is also a spindle tool that screws on, then a center bolt presses on the shaft.  That tool has promise, but I have never used it.  

What finally worked?