'87 Cherokee L/F Hub stuck in steering knuckle

[mmcpeck]

Hey guys,

I started pulling everything apart on the left front to replace the axle U-joint there, and everything went smoothly until I tried to to get the hub out of the steering knuckle.

20 years of rust seems to have seized that hub right in there. Tapped it at first, then banged a little harder, but don't want to whale on it since the bearing is in there. Used a block of wood and some decent force, but it's tough to get a good angle on it. Tried using a puller but once it gets tight, it just starts spinning the hub and axle, instead of pulling the hub out of the knuckle. The hub won't budge.

It's killing me too, because everything else came apart in about an hour and I thought I would be able to just slide the axle out, replace the joint and get it back in and be rolling, and now the rust is jamming me up.

Any tips on getting old rusted hubs out without hurting anything. If need be I will replace the wheel bearing, as long as I can get this hub out, the last thing I want to do is put it back together just to take it somewhere.

Thanks,

Mike

[AlohaBra]

Soak it with some Coca-Cola.

[mmcpeck]

Will that seriously work?? Will it work any better than PB Blaster?

I have soaked it with PB, and was thinking about putting some heat to it, but I wasn't sure if heat was a good idea. Will heat hurt anything inside the hub any rubber seals or anything? As long as they are easily replaceable, I don't care about melting any seals, just don't want to damage anything that will make this job more of a hassle.

Thanks.

[gtmud]

You will probabaly be replacing that hub bearing. Get a slide hammer and attach it to the hub, this will get it out, but there is a good chance that the bearing may come apart. Or you could tap the hub back into place, load the area up with Blaster and let is soak for a while, then using the slide hammer remove the hub.