2003 XC70: Left-Front Axle REALLY REALLY Stuck

[scirocco]

Hi everyone...

As mentioned, the LF axle on my '03 (221,000mi) XC70 is REALLY stuck.

Things I've tried:

The usual pry-bar (oh how i wish this had worked)

Wooden wedge blocks (lots of splinters)

Several cold-chisels and screwdrivers, beat w/ 2.5 and 5lb hammers. Overnight pbblaster soak.
this resulted in some gouging of the case, and on the side towards the cup, actual gouging/compression of the chisels. That cup is made of HARD steel!

Wrapped galv cable around cup to give something to pull on, swung hammer inside loop of cable. Broken cable, several times.

Welded/made monstrosity to wrap around cup and pull. Used old bumper jack to pull. This shifted the transmission/motor on the mounts a lot, eventually bridged trans case and frame with wood block, and added looooong cheater bar. Jumping on cheater bar resulted in broken grade-5 bolt. Remade setup, better bolts. Wife and I jumping on it resulted in break of 1/4" steel rod (interestingly, not where i had flattened/forged it, but at a loop)

Recalling advice on this forum (generally excellent), attempted to 'knock it in' and give it a turn. No discernable movement when hit hard w/ 5lb via hardened piece of steel shaft. Turned anyway, throughout process.

Gave up and started calling around for a new trans. Guy at IPD said "it will come out, just get a slide hammer and hit it hard enough"

Stores closed, so fabricated own ghetto-fab slide hammer from rebar, vice-grips (this seems to be the only way to grab the cup) and 10lb steel weight.
Results: no way, no movement. Closed vice-grips with cheater pipe (they are real VG, can handle). Popped open. Did again, harder, and ziptied VG closed. Stayed closed, but slipped off.


SOOOOOO

What now?

Ideas:

1) Weld section of grade-5 (8?) bolt to cup, attach slide hammer to that.

2) Ditto, but attach to 10ton bottle jack (= cracked case, i am sure)

3) Take apart bevel gear, maybe drive from behind? (heh, heh)

4) New trans. (sorta needs one anyhow, 221k on original... but $$$ don't have)



General Whinges:

I don't have my copy of VADIS anymore (old, infested XP laptop, lost discs, use mac now, etc) so I don't know if I can access the back of the shaft that way. Don't want to take it apart on the chance, and don't know what/how many gaskets etc i'll need. Angle gear has been trouble-free....

Yeah, i really did search/read the threads... lots of hints, applied above. A couple of horror stories....

EDIT: More poking around reveals a special tool: 9995462
http://www.handsontools.com/OTC-Tool...-_p_54990.html
But looking at it, i'm not so sure it's more heroic than the efforts described above. Anyone ever used it?

EDIT AGAIN: Looks like that tool is about $110 (Ctrl-f 9995462)
http://volvocars.spx.com/pdf/Mand_Tool_list_010511.pdf




The yoke thingie i thought i was so clever with...



Yoke thingie in place



Yoke thingie with looooong cheater bar attached to bumper jack. Acts as lever braced against frame and trans case (wood block). This is what broke the steel rod.



Ghetto-fab slide hammer. It appears effective, in that i can hit it really hard with the weight (watching fingers carefully.. angle is just long enough to catch..) Still slipped off, even using cheater+max-effort to pinch. Also note that yoke-thingie is still in this pic, but broke. The lowest loop busted where i bent it over. Should have forged loop instead of bend/weld.