i'm trying to get the lockouts off of a 20 year old dana 44 and i live in the rust belt.... the little allen head bolts are rusted solid! i tryed heating the whole lockout and each bolt to no success. can i cut the lockout off where it attaches to the rotor/spindle? i don't care if the lockouts get ruined but i'd like to save as much of the other stuff as possible. these manual hubs are new to me, so any advise would be helpfull.:confused:

Drill the heads off of the little allen bolts and it should come apart then once inside it may all be rusted up too, but get the cover of first. Are they internal or external?

internal.... i hate drilling heads off bolts!:mad:

if you don't have one. go get a left drill bit The size if the cap head. it might catch on the cap head bolt and break loose. If not you still have to drill the head off to get the bugger out..

drilled the heads off, piece of cake! :p these things better be worth it... alot more complicated than a tj unit bearing... i have to say that this dana 44 dwarfs the 30 in size though :D

I've had to just smash them with a BFH, this was on the ford style lock outs. Be careful not to hit the hub, just the lock out. Good luck.

-Jeremy

btw, thanks for the advice. i figured drilling would be a pain but the heads poped right off.... any tips on getting the internal snap ring off? it's a stock ford lockout....

I usually use a small screwdriver or a curved pick tool, try to wedge it under the snapring, then pry the snapring out of the groove and work it around the hub. Make any sense? After you get them out, a trick I learned, is to file the end of the snapring back at an angle towards the hub, so it is easier to get a pick or srewdriver under it for the next time. This really comes in handy when you start breaking front u-joints or axle shafts. It seems like it takes for ever the first time but you'll be amazed how fast you can get at pulling it all apart.

-Jeremy

I clamp a small vice-grip (what's a vice-grip:laughing: ) on the snap ring and then work a small screw driver under the end and pop it out.

Once you get the large snap ring out throw in the tool chest as a spare. Then go to the local junk yard, find a late 80-'s Chevy Sub with the Auto hubs. This things are great! Just pop open the cover and grap the large snap ring. They have about a 1/2" of the snap ring sticking out towards you. Very easy to remove, just need a plyers.