1989 Vin C DS halfshaft removal problem

Hello all. I have a 1989 buick T-type with a 3.8 vin C in it swapped in from a 1990 oldsmobile. I wrecked the olds on the front drivers side.

After the swap into the LeSabre, the transmission seal around the driver's side halfshaft started leaking but the shaft seems to be stuck. My mechanic tried a 10 pound slide hammer and three guys with prybars but it wouldn't budge at all. He suggests that he could try to weld some chains onto the tulip (the remaining portion of the shaft in the tranny, the rest was torn apart) and pull it off with a come-along. However, he is not sure if this would damage the transmission or if the transmission is already damaged from having the tulip stuck anyway.

I have a spare transmission that is good, but I have no clue how many miles are on it so it would be an option to just swap in the other tranny...however, I just got done with an engine/tranny swap and I'm really not up to doing a tranny swap now, especially since the transmission only has 45 thousand miles on it.

So what do you guys think? Should I let the shop try to yank on it with a come-along (I have a spare halfshaft to replaced the destroyed one with) or should I just give up and replace the tranny? Or is there a way to remove a portion of the transmission to remove it without having to remove the whole transmission?

Help would be great!! I'm going to post in the other H-body forums and see what I can get too :(

It sounds like have “twisted splines” either on your transaxle output shaft or in the CV hub, or both. There is no easy remedy to the removal if that is the problem. You can continue to beat and pull on it until something happens, or just give up! Either way, you need to get the half shaft out to see if any there is damage to the output shaft. If the splines are twisted on the output shaft, you need to replace either the output shaft, or the transaxle.

I compared the stuck shaft to the one on my PA and the stuck shaft is about 1/4 inch deeper into the tranny than the non-stuck shaft on the PA...

Soo...how would I go about replacing the output shaft? Or would it be simpler to just replace the entire transaxle?

Just a thought here. I wonder if you pulled the other side out and used a drift punch to drive it out..

I wonder why it's in farther in? Is this why the seal leaking?


The slide hammer should of done the job. Like what was posted ....it does sound like the splines are messed up.

I've always been able to pull the axels by using a prybar with a quick snap and they pop right out.

Good luck.

Dan

I don't know enough about transmissions to know if it would be feasible to pound it out from the other side or not....It may be worth a shot, but I kinda doubt It would work.

The seal wasn't leaking untill after I drove the car about 250 miles, and then it just started all at once...no small drips. My theory is that the seal was broken in the wreck, but didn't show any drips b/c the shaft was pushed up against it to continue the seal, but After driving it a bit, the shaft loosened up just enough to allow leakage...but if it is twisted on (at 1/4 inch it would have to be twisted good, too) then there isn't much hope for even pulling it off with a come-along :(

Unless anyone else knows how????