Bogie frame/ arm removal?

[SgtKish]

So I'm willing to bet this subject has been talked about relentlessly , but sorry I can't find the conversation. I have a couple tracks I just started a full rebuild on, but his is my first time for this type of vic. I have been through 3 manuals on how to take these bogies completely apart, and for some reason I can't get that arm off that connects to the middle bogie frame. The top wants to come out, but the bottom won't budge. Heat, hammering  and two broken tools later, nothing. AM I missing somethin here? I don't want to brake anything on the track. An I doing this right, just heat, pound, and pry, or is there a better way. Both are m3a1 btw, thanks. Mark

[steve1973]

Hello Mark and welcome to the halftrack community.
To remove the side arms you are talking about you first want to retract the valute springs. Next there are two rods holding the two arms in place. Remove the 4 nuts on the rods. You said the top is loose and free. The bottom rod is tapered going into the side arms. You are doing the right thing. Remember, your halftrack is 70 puls years old and may be stubborn coming loose. Heat, hammer, prybar and some pb blaster wouldn't hurt. There are a total of 7 manuals that you should have. There are more that are good also. I sell a 600 page book that I highly recommend. See my post in the parts for sale section. Good luck, your on the right track, no pun intended. 

Steve A.

[steve-0]

I assume you are talking about the lower of this arm
what I did was hammer a wedge between the frames pieces a little back from this joint to put tension on it then using a 3 pound sledge hit the lower joint on the side hard.  I remember reading somewhere of this method

[SgtKish]

Ya that's exactly what I have been doing, but I thought I was missing something and had to stop. I didn't want to brake something else. On myself that is. Last month I cut off a last bolt on the side body armor and it came down hard across the top of my foot braking all five toes. So needless to say I have been a bit more nervous then usual disassembling his thing. So looks like I will just heat hotter, and smack harder...lol. Thanks guys, I feel a little better that I'm not doin anything wrong here.

[big44maghunter]

I drove a wedge in between the arms by the tapered shaft to put pressure on it.  Then put the torch on it till it popped off.  Used the same technique on all of mine, worked well.

Brad

[SgtKish]

That's exactly what I just got done doing. There's some very good Intel on this site that squared me away on this issue. Thanks for the response,  that worked great.

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