Wheel Horse Trunnion Remover

I take a lot of trunnions off and most of them require heating them up with a torch.  I decided it was time to make a tool that could just be used with a ratchet or impact to save time. 

There are a lot of ways to do this but for me I wanted something extremely heavy duty because I remove so many of them.  The build is in the following pics and is pretty self explanatory.   It started with a piece of 3/4" schedule 40 pipe.  The inserts inside are from the deck spacers on the lift arms, they fit over the threads and protect them as well as keeping the tool from wobbling around.  The first pic is removing the inner weld lip from the pipe and fitting the deck spacers.  Several of them are put in solid from end to end.

It started out long but was cut in two, If the first one didn't work out I would have something else to start with...  

 

Next up was building the cage so it could grab the entire trunnion on all sides.

 

After that a larger flanged nut was welded on in case I happen to run into something with longer threads.  If that ever happens the threads can go through the nut and a deep well socket can be used.  You never know what you'll find on some of these.   

 

Lastly it was time for a test.  Trying to take this one off was wanting to twist and break the rod even after soaking it for 2 days.  I needed this thing done so I could move on to other work.  

It worked like a charm, in 30 seconds it was off.  There was a little damage to the rod threads from being rusted solid but after blasting everything and threading the trunnion back on and off it's still very usable.  2 more parts saved and a once pain in the butt job, getting the torch out, and spending a lot of time on these is over.  Everything with saving parts is about hammer action.  We don't use impacts just to save time, they also save parts and sanity lol.  I finished the tool yesterday and the deck was finished and ready to go shortly after.  Hope this helps someone like it did me.