My cat-426 ate the planetary and the ring-gear and a load of other parts, thinking of rebuilding it. The 2 halves are NOT identical, the left one 7E21 hosts the ring-gear in it, the right one is7E20. I prefer to strip non-destructively when possible; so how do I remove this ring gear in the field so to speak, without the special tool or a press? (installation will maybe need pre-cooling in the freezer). Thanks for any advice.
The first thing we always did them standing up makes assembly and disassembly a lot easier
not too stable, plywood on uneven gravel I don't see the edit button so I'll reply to myself. The OP was for the LEFT half and the right half also has a ring-gear (didn't know that when I posted). Today I opened the RIGHT housing and everything in it looks pretty good, it too will have a ring-gear removal because I do want to REBUILD and not just repair this axle. Since this RIGHT one could conceivably be reinstalled is there a standard inspection like magnaflux or whatever?
Leave one tire on
I rigged myself a DIY puller with 3/4" threadrod and that ended up as a day wasted, using long nuts I pulled the rod apart eventhough the lowest shown tensile limit is around 20k lbs. Gonna take it to my blacksmith for the ring-gear extraction/press-in. Don't know how I would've done it if left to my own devices.
Huston, I have a problem. I absolutely HAVE to find 16 rear wheel studs that are otherwise IDENTICAL to the stock ones but are 3/4"-1" longer. No one seems to make such, is that possible in 2026?