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There was a thread on Joe's project blog a few days ago about his difficulty removing the rear axle inner seal. I also chimed in and said what a pain one of mine had been.

Not willing to repeat that misery on the other side, I looked for alternatives. Had an idea of what would work so made my own puller. Probably not a new idea but it worked really well. For anyone having the same issue and wishing to avoid learning new vocabulary, here is a possible option.

Used a piece of scrap 1" wide flat stock -- this one happened to be 5/16 thick. Drilled and threaded to fit my slide hammer and added a smaller hole for a manipulating handle. On my senior rear axle the long dimension is 2 1/4" and was rounded more or less to fit inside the tube. Took a couple of tries to get the dimension right but well worth the effort. Junior axles are probably a little smaller.

The seal came out perfectly intact in a couple of minutes using several heavy slides of the weight. Compare that to the other side which just laughed at the tiny jaws that came with the hammer set and didn't like the pick tool any better. Those tools resulted in the seal being totally destroyed before it finally gave in and came out.

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Clever yet simple, AA+ for problem-solving & ingenuity, but then again I wouldn't expect any less from you.

Howard, simple and elegant. One wonders why something like this had not been made and sold years ago. Who, says there is nothing new under the sun?

(o{}o)

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In more recent decades, Kent-Moore supplied GM dealers with a tool that functions similarly to remove the rear axle seal and bearing - see the attached image.

Intend for use in conjunction with a slide hammer of sufficient weight, the foot/claw of this tool folded up for insertion through the opening in the bearing/seal. However, that foot/claw had to be properly sized to the specific opening for each application; heavier vehicles have larger diameter shaft and bearing. As a result, multiple versions of the tool were issued over the years. IIRC, we had about half a dozen or so variants at the last GM dealer I worked at.

Yet, K-M tools are terribly expensive - probably because they have a contractually-obligated (captive) market.

Howard's solution is certainly an excellent example of elegant simplicity - and much more affordable.

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