03 2500 hd rear axle and bearing hub removal
 

Heya. I'm hoping to get some help on removing the rear spindle nut on a 2003 silverado 2500hd full floating axle. The backing plate on the parking brake is shot so i need to remove the bearing hub in order to get the plate off. I have been getting mixed instructions between my service manual and dealers. I removed the 8 bolts in the axle flange and slid the axle out which just has splines on the end. I bought a six lug socket to get the retaining nut off but it just barely does not fit the grooves in the nut. The dealer is talking about a tool j-45859 to press the axle in to remove a clip in the differnetial but mine just slid right off. I'm not sure if this matters or not but i seem to have an odd ball size ring gear in the rear diff as the diff cover that i replaced awhile back was one that people kept returning that didn't fit. Apparently they changed designs mid-year. Thanks for any help.

If you have a full floater than you are right - the axle pulls right out (no clip in the housing). There should be a retaining ring and a key way that keeps the nut from turning. I noticed when I worked on mine that the tool I rented from O'Reilly's did not fit as well as the one from Autozone, but they both worked. The only reason I rented from both places is I had to redo the seals and the one from O'Reilly's was out on loan already so I went to Autozone.
So remove the retaining ring and keyway and take that nut off. At this point the drum should slide off. It might take a little persuading and beware it is heavy. You will need a torque wrench to reinstall. That nut has to be torqued then backed off and retorqued to a lesser amount. I can get the torque specs if you need them.
Good luck!

Thanks for the help bud. You would think the dealerships that i asked could have been civil enough to explain it like you did. After reading your post i looked and saw the retaining ring on top of the nut, maybe that cuts off the grooves in the nut just enough so the wheel locknut socket i have won't work but will once i remove it. What concerns me is that all of the sockets at advance auto say for front axle and advance auto says that thry don't supply one for the rear. The dealer told me to use a screwdriver:confused:. Just to clear one thing up, i don't have a drum on this... just the drum built into the rotor for the e-brake so all i have to remove after the bearing hub is the backer plate that the e-brake pads mount to. Yes, i would appreciate very much the torque specs. Would there be different torque specs for different pinion gear sizes as i thinnk i have the larger of the two options?

frozen bearings????
 

i got the spindle nut off but the bearing hub will not slide off on both wheels. There is a fair amount of play in the bearings so i assume they are bad . The inner race of the outer bearing slides back and forth on the spindle shaft but is locked to it as i spin it. I hate to pound the bearing hub off as i don't want to screw something up on the spindle. I'm working in around 30 degrees f so maybe it needs to be heated to het the rear hun off .

Mine is an older strictly drum brake system and one side was a little hard to get off as well. Make sure your emergency brake is backed off.

pics
 

my e-brake pads ride on the inside of the rotor which was removed earlier so those aren't holding me up. I attached some pics. The bearing hub "should" simply slide off but i have 160,000 miles on it and had a diff leak so the bearings may have run dry for a little while and locked on the spindle shaft or something. I want to just tap the bearing hub from behind to remove it but am affraid of damaging spindle... any suggestions would be much appreciated.

pic 2
 

another pic

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another pic

Oh I see...I think you need the puller that is made for your rear end if it won't tap off. I actually rigged up a steering wheel puller when I had trouble getting mine out. I used the bolts that hold the axle in and threaded the center bolt (of the puller) in to where it rested against the lip of the spindle. It didn't take much effort and came right off. Good luck!