Rear axle disassembly questions.

[Seventy Won]

Greetings all... first post.

Last week I was given an old Ken Bar go kart. I have managed to get it running and plan on doing a frame-up, nut and bolt restoration. While stripping it down to the frame, I encountered issues with the rear axle.

It would appear that I have to remove set screws from 4 different bearings and two brake rotors just to remove the axle assembly from the frame. Is this correct?

My axle has a differential. Do the bolts in it have to come out to allow the axle assembly to be removed from the frame? Any help with removing the rear axle from the frame would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Denny]

That is a good looking kart. To get the axle out you will have to unbolt the bearing retainers from the frame. At some point though you will have to deal with any locking collars and set screws. My advice is start soaking things down with some PB Blaster a couple of days before you start taking it apart. Don’t expect it to come apart easy. It will fight you a little. You should not have to split the differential. It will be a big help if you take a wire wheel, wire brush or sandpaper to remove as much rust as you can from the axle first. Good luck!

 

[Seventy Won]

Thank you Denny. I have removed both the set screws and the bolts from the locking collars. The axle rust has been smothered in a gel-type rust dis-solver for days. Despite this nothing is moving.

Do the hubs also have to come off? It looks like I may have some sort of spacers between the hubs and the brake rotors and this is preventing anything from moving.

 

[Denny]

There might be set screws in the sprockets or other parts to look out for also. That Naval Jelly type stuff ain’t gonna cut it. PB Blaster, wire wheel, wire brush, sandpaper and a BFH are your best friends. Just don’t go all mid-evil on the ends of the axle with the bfh.

 

[Seventy Won]

Got 'er apart today. Had to pull the hubs off. Zipped off the large nuts that retained the axles. This allowed everything to come off the axle. I was surprised to see that the axle itself was inside a thin gauge tube. This tube was cut into many pieces. Between each bearing, rotor and sprocket there was a small section of this tubing. This enlarged the overall diameter of the axle assembly and prevented it from dropping out of the frame.

I assume this tubing is there to prevent any lateral movement of items secured to the axle.

In the end I pulled the c-clips inside the differential removed the axles that way. Tomorrow I'll put them on my shop press and finish getting the bearings and rotors off.

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it.

 

[Denny]

Yup! The sleeves are there to stop the lateral movement. Glad you got it apart!

 

[madprofessor]

Sounds like somebody cut some EMT conduit to be spacers between parts, definitely assures if something wants to slide that everything will have to slide with it. Very stable. I've been using pieces of common water pipe for spacers like that, very heavy duty. 1" and 3/4" will slide right over 1" and 3/4" axles, even with the factory seam.