Derek, I'm kinda confused by your comment on the thread size of the puller. What am I missing here? Seems to me that the coarser the thread the less chance of stripping them, and therefor a greater pulling power beyond the stress limitations of the fine threads?
I know that with my fine thread puller, and using my final (and successfull approach of a 3 foot pry bar and pipe) solution, I had to rotate the puller about 1-1/2 times BEYOND where it stopped hard against the axle shaft. I was absolutely convinced those fine threads would strip, and they probably would have if I had gone another 5 degrees of rotation. Your thoughts?

Thank you for the heads up Derek.

The puller is something I made up of stuff that I could scrounge.
I did not have easy access to fine pitch thread and nut, but if I find something, I think I will build another one.

This one though, has worked well on other well maintained axles.

If it come to grinding, I will take your advice on how to proceed and hopefully not damage the shaft.

Best Regard, JimK

Thanks for the feedback Ron. This gives me hope.

Not sure what the proper way to post, but this is what I did. The process is a little counter intuitive.

Also, the site is buggy. If you do not do thigs in the exact sequence it expects, it will not respond the same for the same action request. At times, even though I was logged in, when attempting to add a picture to the archive it would again ask for me to log in, but after that it would still not post the picture to the archive.

In addition, I have the very top of my web page cut off, only showing a sliver of the login boxes. Makes it difficult to log in. It aslo cuts off the tabs for various vehicle groupsl

Try following the seaquences below and don’t give up. If it does not work, I find its best to log out of the page and start again from the beggining. Like I said, its buggy and counter intuitive, but dont give up. I’m sure you will figure it out.

1. Login to brickboard
2. On the top menu in brickboard, there is a pull down selection box. If it is not showing “—more—“, then click on the pull down arrow and select “—more—“. It appears, if you do not do this, the pull down will not function as expected.
3. Now, in the same pull down menu, click on “Brick Pix”
4. This should take you to the BrickPix screen. Scroll down and just before the pictures appear, there is a box with a greyed in row with the text “[ADD NEW EXHIBIT]”.
5. Click on [ADD NEW EXHIBIT]. A new BrickPix page should appear with a number of options below, including a note regarding the picture.
6. In the “YOUR IMAGE FILE” row, click on “Choose File”. This should bring up your file explorer.
7. Go to the location where you have your pictures and click on the one you want to add. You can only add one at a time. If your picture file size is very large, it may not load. If you have this problem, you may need to resize your pictures so the file size is small. There are free picture re-sizer applications on the net.
8. Again, I’ve also notices that if you do not do the above sequence in order, i.e. going back and forth on the page, the picture will not be attached. If this happens, click on the top menu “BB in a circle wit right arrow” and follow the step as above with no exception.
9. Now you can fill in the next rows if you want, “CAR NAME/SUBJECT”, “MILEAGE”
10. On the next row, on the pull downs, select your MODEL/YEAR
11. On the “PICTURE TYPE” row, in the pull down select the appropriate option. In most of our cases its “TECHNICAL”.
12. Under the NOTE section write your comment about the picture.


--- This above is only to make the picture available for your post or reply.

1. Now back at the brickboard main page, click on the “BB in a circle with right arrow” and select “Rear Wheel Drive” from the pull down menu.
2. Select the “444-544” tab
3. Either select “POST NEW MESSAGE” or open a thread and select “REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE”
4. In either case, the Post or Reply window should open.
5. In the SUBJECT row, write your subject
6. Next row down, select your MODEL/YEAR
7. Write your comments in the message
8. At the bottom of the box in the “IMAGE URL *” row, click on [(IMAGE LIBRARY (UPLOAD/SELECT)]
9. This should take you to the Brick Pix page.
10. Click on [SHOW MY EXHIBITS]. Here you should find your pictures you have uploaded. Click on a picture. The window should go back to your post and now show the link to the picture you attached.
11. Submint your reply and the picture should show up in your reply.

test of a 104 KB picture size

Hi Ron,

It wasn't entirely clear to me what you were dealing with. I Google imaged 'P544 rear brake' and came up with this. I assume this is what you have.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Volvo-Rear-Brake-Drum-122-544-220-673797-/203108983586?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

I've had a lot of RWD cars with drum brakes over the years but don't recall seeing this set up. If I recall the drums have always been on the outside.

Heating only the outer portion of the hub will not do the job. The heated portion will become very weak and as it expands against the constraint of the cold and strong center part, it will yield. On cooling the displaced metal will not be able to return to it's original position, leaving you with a warped flange and no closer to your goal. This sometimes happens to brake rotors.

For heat to be effective, it needs to be placed on the sleeve of the hub because that's where it's bound up. Sufficient heat there will relieve any of the elastic stresses that Mr. Kwas referred to, and the expansion forces will cause some movement to disturb the bonds that may have formed. Rust bonds are weak but the small welds that form when two clean metal surfaces slide on each other are tougher.

The easiest way to heat the sleeve in your case is by heating the face of the hub and let the heat travel by conduction. Heat needs to be applied at a rate above that which it's being dissipated so it takes a large torch. A multi orificed oxy/fuel unit is suitable, but I prefer a propane/air weed burner as I mentioned before. It's a softer flame, much cheaper, and doesn't require as much movement. You're trying to bake it, not fry it. I would find a milk crate to sit on because it will take 5 minutes or so, consider ventilation, and slowly rotate the torch around the bolt circle.

As to temperature, there's a constant co-efficient of linear expansion up to abut 1400F, so the higher the temp the better the effect. The limiting factor is that we don't want to make any structural changes to the crystal structure of the components. Axel shafts, steering components, your hub, grade 8 bolts and the like are all medium carbon steels quenched and tempered in the 1100F range. Tempering is the last heat treatment before the parts are put into service so going back to that temp doesn't change them at all. 1100F is also the temp that is to relieve the residual stresses in weldments.

You can safely go up to a dull red in the shade, but I usually start at a lower temp and try it. If it doesn't pop I'll go a little higher the second time.

This will work, but it's not the only way. I've done a lot of forging and welding and am something of a pyromaniac, so I may be making it sound easier than it is for someone not used to handling a torch. Whichever way you go, be careful.

Regards,
Peter

Here is an ideal.....Use a 90 degree radiator hose that fits tight over the small end of the drum with the axle nut removed. Clamp hose down. .Fill with solvent/oil and let sit. Since the axle is a taper, it would be hard to get any solvent to travel upwards.
The hose ideal will put the solvent higher than the axle so gravity will do the rest. Let it sit for a few days.

You are welcome Ron.

I don't think heating up just a part of the hub will work for you. I'll get back with why I think that in a day or two, but right now I've got to find my stocking which seems to have been misplaced by my chambermaid.

and to all, a good night.
Peter

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the comments.

The pictures. Something's amiss I think. I've posted several through BrixPics but had some trouble a few months ago. Later one worked and now they don't again.

When I click on 'add an exhibit' it goes to the download place. The first box is 'username' and then to the right it says 'logged in as' but doesn't include my username. It knows who I am because in the top right it says 'welcome back maplebones.' If I select a picture from my library, that C business shows up where it should be the img stuff, and the picture doesn't show up in the box below. Any ideas ?

I understand what you're saying and it's an interesting hypothesis. You say "I bet it will work". My first inclination is "I bet it wont", but I wouldn't bet my life on it. I think I'd like to get some strain gauges on it before I lay any money down.

Some things that I'm wondering about

The liquid nitrogen will shrink the metal on the hub that butts the axel. It will make it tighter unless your plan is to shrink the axel as well. That will be difficult as you only have access to the end.

The outward pull on the bored section is only at one point on it's length of what looks to be 2 or 3 inches. I think that creates a bending moment doing gosh knows what.

The practicality of lining up the cooling, heating, and pulling to meet at one point in time. It doesn't look like a one man job.

The biggest stumbling block is that the heating has a very limited potential to do useful work because the metal's yield strength is decreasing as it's temperature is rising. At some point it will give up and find it easier to reduce it's cross section and elongate permanently away from the center of the hub.

On this last point, there is a somewhat related experiment used to illustrate how metal reacts to thermal expansion when constrained. Some may have seen this.

You take say, a 3" length of 1/2" round bar, accurately measure the length and diameter.

Snug the sample up in a vice so that it's ends are against the jaws.

Heat up a 1/2" or so spot in the center of the bar to a dull red.

As it's cooling, the sample will fall from the vice onto the floor. Pick it up, but be careful it's hot.

When cool, measure the length and diameter. Notice how the sample is now shorter and the heated section is thicker.

A similar affect happens when a bolt or stud is heated when threaded into a heavy block. The expansion of it's diameter is constrained by the block so it transfers it's expansion to the length. When cool,the bolt comes out longer and skinnier than when it went in.

I've heated ring gears to make them move and cooled exhaust valve seats to get them to move, but never used both techniques on a single piece. That's very unique and it might come in handy sometime.

regards, Peter

What I did with my PV was load up the puller under tension and used the edge of a 2x4 and tap / shock outwards on the drum edge next to the backing plate.I just alternated between opposite sides of the drum while tapping around . The car was 15 year sitting since last tag. Suspend the puller with a safety strap. That drum Wil be a projectile. "Be Careful"

I was going to suggest this too. I own one as I once had an Amazon of which I needed to take the hubs off and was told that only the genuine Volvo puller would do the job safely and quickly. I must say it was well worth the money (even though you need a lot of it, if you can still get it, that is).

Compared to a normal puller it's a big hunk of steel, and it doesn't have the wedge on the end but a flat disc that rotates freely making sure the axle doesn't flare out.