[Mgs] Tale of the rear axle

[Councill, David]

I am partway into a rear axle thrust washer replacement. I am now at the stage
of trying to pull out one of the half shafts. Seeing I had no tools for this
operation, I went to my local purveyor of cheap Chinese Tools, Harbor Freight,
and bought a $69 slide hammer. It looked like a nice tool with a decent steel
case to hold it. I assembled it and hooked it up much like the one featured on
Barney's site and my main guide for this operation:
http://www.chicagolandmgclub.com/photos/b_clunk/
After pounding on the slide hammer maybe 20 times with no sign of any movement
on the half shaft, one of the arms (gear puller type legs) broke. So it looks
like I will go back to HF and get a replacement. They claim a life time
warranty on hand tools and this should be a hand tool.

Is it normal to have difficulties getting the half shaft to move or a trick to
it? Right now, I'll have another go with another HF tool. Maybe I should have
bought a name brand tool from Sears for about $300 USD and I may go the route
if I end up destroying a few more HF parts.

David Councill
67 BGT
72 B
64 B