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I believe that you can move the axle outward a few inches without removing the pinion cage or the transmission cover. Here"s what I would suggest: crib up the side you need to loosen a few inches. Be sure its held solid because you"ll be rocking and banging on the axle and/or wheel to loosen the axle from the bull gear eventualy, and you do not want that heavy bugger coming down on your foot or worse. Next, unbolt the axle seal retainer (the cap with the grease zerk nearest the wheel), and remove the PTO shaft, seal and bearing retainers. Now I"ve always worked on the transmission of my H and M tractors by removing the transmission cover, but I"ve been assured that the following works and you can leave the cover on. Reach into the the PTO hole and remove the bolt and washer that holds the axle to the bull gear. I might suggest putting a wooden wedge under the bull gear at this point just in case you pull the axle out too far and it clears the gear. If you don"t, the gear will want to roll backward when free of the axle, and I would guess that it will be a you-know-what to get that bull gear back into place working only througn that little PTO opening. I would leave the tire with rim and wheel on to give you something to push, pry or put a jack against, because that splined shaft isn"t going to slide out easily - it will take some force. If you can rig a jack system to press it out that would be easiest. At this point you will have the axle out a bit which should allow you to remove the outboard bearing (I"m assuming that you are wanting to get at that bearing, I dont know why you would want to pull the axle out a few inches otherwise). Of course you"ll need to remove the wheel and tire to get the bearing off the axle. On reassembly you can pull the axle in tight to the bull gear with the bolt once you"re close. When you get the axle/bearing out, you will see that the bearing has a shield on one side. I think it faces to the transmission side. If you would, drop me a note back and let me know if I"ve got the orientation correct. I pulled them off my M for a complete transmission rebuild and now I"m unsure of the direction. My email is open
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