How do you get from this...
Rescued attachment half_shaft_before.jpg

to this...
Rescued attachment half_shaft_after.jpg

without buying expensive tools? Simple. Take some off-cuts and some stud and make this. Works a treat and cost me nothing.
Rescued attachment cv_puller.jpg

?

It's an alternative to the "suitable puller" shown in chapter 9 of the haynes Sierra manual. It's for pulling the CV joint cover over the sub shaft when reconditioning.
Rescued attachment cv_puller_&_shaft.jpg

Is that in your shed....

Poser.

Ah, would love to own a shed, but it wouldn't fit on my balcony. No, that's my high mileage hallway carpet. Lovely isn't it?

Nice job on the compressing tool, thats the way to do things right.
However, I found that I could easily press the drive ends into the CV joint covers by using an extra pair of hands to do so whilst I used a hammer to peen over the new cover into place.
you have done it the right way though

That most definitely would have been quicker and easier, but unfortunately it's getting harder and harder to lure spare pairs of hands to the garage. Most of my spare hands are becoming wise to the "Fancy popping round to the garage for 20min" line.

On the subject of half shafts, I spent ages last night attempting to remove the half shafts from my Escort rear axle.

The haynes manual helpfully suggests either making a simply tool (and gives no idea's on how to do it) or says to replace the rear wheel onto the hub & hit the inside rim sharply.

This latter method, applied against the right hand wheel resulted in the left halfshaft working loose, but the right hand one refused to budge. Any ideas?

Cheers,
Rob.

there's an illustration of a slide hammer being used to remove the half-shafts on p127. You could try making something like this (see below). Bolt the end with the holes to the hub and whack the inside of the other plate with a hammer until the halfshaft comes out? You wouldn't have to weld it, just run some studding through the inside of the box section and make sure it's good and tight.
Rescued attachment slide_hammer_alt.jpg

Bolt the left one back on and belt it to see if the reverse applies . You can put a couple of longish large bolts through the holes with a couple of big washers on and use them to push the shaft out.

I tried putting the left one back on and thumping it, which resulted in the left one popping back out! Damn!

Why did I not think of using some bolts to push it out - thx for that tip Pete.

And if that does not work looks like I'll be making some sort of tool - thx for the pic Chris.

Rob.

Try making one of these, just a normal hub extractor with a bar welded on to it and a sliding weight.

Mark
Rescued attachment pull.JPG

All you need to do is remove the four 13mm bolts behind the hub, bolt this on to two of the wheel studs and slide the weight like hell!!!!!

I struggled like hell until I made this, and now life is a breeze

Mark

Quote from Haynes Escort Manual Chapter 13/Supplement. Page 240 paragraph 10.

Axleshafts (halfshafts) - Removal

If a slide hammer is not available, the halfshaft and bearing can be pressed out of the axle casing by screwing two suitable bolts into the backplate retaining screw holes from the rear of the backplate.
First turn the bearing retainer so that it blanks off the screw holes, then screw the bolts from the rear at diametrically opposite points, a few turns at a time, until the bearing is pushed out.

Worked for me, took ten minutes each side. Didn't need any kit, just 2 bolts.

Damn, I look in the supplementary chapter but could not quickly find anything.... thx David!