Front Axle Shaft Sucked In

[countryhick]

I recently bought a 95 Ranger and the auto locking hubs would not engage, so I took them off to clean them. I noticed the thrust washers were installed incorrectly. The splined washer was the innermost of the three instead of being on the outside like it should have been. When trying to install them correctly, I ran into a problem of not having enough room on the axle shaft. It seems like it is sucked into the spindle too far. I tried pulling on it, but cant get it to come out any. Is there a trick to pull this shaft out?

 

[scotts90ranger]

try a prybar between the axle housing and the outer U joint, if that doesn't work you need to take the spindle off and remove the thrust washer thing behind it then reassemble... someone mix matched some junkyard parts in that thing at some point if that is the problem.

 

[AllanD]

There is a ~1/8" thick plastic thrust washer mounted to the seal on the back side of the spindle for the outer axle stub.

It often slips out of position when this work is being done.

Next step for you is to unbolt and pull the spindle...

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