Haven't touched the explorer since the first posting. Hope to get back to it this weekend.
I have the knuckle disconnected from the car. Nut is off axle. And yes, I have burred end of axle from the abuse. Will need some tidying up before I remove(when I get it to move?
). As I said before, broke two pullers trying to push axle back through hub/knuckle. The second puller is a rugged puller.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OTC-Tools-6...hash=item339ede58ee&item=221708703982&vxp=mtr
This is the second puller I broke...
Not sure what I am missing.
Again, THANK YOU, for the response.
There is almost nothing except a little corrosion holding the axle inside the hub. So if you have the entire knuckle out of the car, and the axle is also removed from the rear end and still attached to the hub, then one of two things is happening. Most likely, somebody has smacked on the end of that axle with a sledge, and mushroomed the crap out of the axle head.
Or, there is some massive amount of corrosion locking the threads together.
You could try taking a file, and making the axle look like factory again, basically filing off the mushroomed parts, and making sure to clean the grooves out of any excess metal that has been folded over into them. If it's mushroomed, chances are the axle was moving just fine, right up until it got to the mushroomed part. So you would have to push the axle back in again, without damaging the CV joint.
If it's really bad, you can easily get new bearings that come with new hubs. It used to be that was the only way you could get the bearing. Now you can get the bearing with or without the hub. With a new hub, all you would need is either a new axle, or cut the old hub off the old axle. Given that it's still got the bearing on it, you would actually have to cut the axle off and pound it backwards thru the old hub. That might make the hub reusable, but destroys the axle.
Does the axle freely move until it hits a mushroomed part of the axle tip? Have you tried soaking it with PB blaster? I think the file is going to be your best friend. When you're in a ditch, stop digging. Correctly evaluate the situation, and make the necessary repair. In your case, that's probably filing the axle back to a normal shape that will slide back out of the hub. In order to free it up so you can push it back in the hub more (to work on the threads with a file), you can heat the hub up with a MAP gas torch. It would ruin the hub bearing, which is obviously bad already. But you don't want to ruin your CV, so monitor axle temps near the CV side.