I'm doing my first axle job on a '75 Hiboy w/ Dana 44. Learning as I go, following Haynes as best I can.

I'm trying to extract the driver's side axle shaft. I've gotten through the hub (not OEM) and wheel bearing locknut.

So now I get to the part where it says "remove the retainer and related components". On a Jeep site, the consensus was that the retaining ring needs to be drilled/chiseled out to release the adjusting nut.

But the pictures in Haynes look like I should use a tool through the holes to extract. What do I do?

 

After the hub theres the inner part of the hub (what the teeth of the hub go into) that slides out, then the first axle nut. Then a circular piece with a bunch of holes in it, it just slides off the key way, then theres a second axle nut that looks exactly like the first, then your to the wheel bearing and the rotor will pop off. The axle nuts either use a special socket or you can hit them with a flathead screwdriver and hammer to loosen them up. This might sound complicated but just dig in and remember the order they came off in. (I wish i would have taken pics, i just had mine apart today.

 

So the stage I'm at, there's a single tooth "washer" with a bunch of holes in it.

The first lock nut came off without any coercion. The tooth on the "washer" sits in a gap in what I think is the second "bearing adjusting nut". (Near as I can tell, it's threaded onto the hub and holds the bearing.) I can get a degree or two of rotation in either direction until the tooth hits the notch.

My issue is that I can't tell from Haynes whether this is a "destroy now, replace later" part that needs to be pressed back on or if there's something more elegant I should be doing to get the "washer" out of the way to get at the second nut.

 

For the record, the thing that held me up was the washer (with holes in it and a single inward-point tooth) between the first and second lock nuts. It just slides off, which wasn't obvious to me at first. Second lock nut is the same as the first - threaded onto the spline.