pulling a rear axle from a 8.8 rear with a traction lok.

[01tracsport]

so over the weekend when i changed my diff fluid on my 2001 sport trac. i also inspected my rear drum brakes. the driver side drum came off no problem and i found out the shoes were pretty worn. the passanger side was another story, i worked on the drum for almost 2 hours, but i could not get it to come free from the hub. i tried heating it up, spraying it with pb blaster. i turned the shoes in all the way to see it they were holding it on. the drum is just rusted in place. before i cut it off, i want to try to pull the axle out and try to seperate the drum with the axle removed.

ok so is the axle shaft pressed into the flanged that is bolted onto the back of the axle. or is the backing plate the only thing that is bolted to the flange? if the axle shaft is not pressed in, what do i remove from inside the carrier. i didn't see any c clip, but it looks like that z braket holds the axles in the center. is this correct, can anyone give me advice on removing the axle.

 

[Jefe]

There is nothing that needs to be unbolted from the axle flange, the c clip is the only thing holding in the axle. You need to remove the center pin from the diff carrier. You will then be able to push the axle in to remove the c clip.