OTC 7509 Inner CV Joint Puller with Slide Hammer

The OTC 7509 is a fork-style inner CV joint puller on a slide hammer. It is built for front-drive axles where the inner joint is locked into the differential side gear by a circlip you cannot reach from outside the case. Instead of wedging a pry bar between the joint housing and the transaxle, the fork seats behind the inner joint housing and the slide hammer delivers a straight, even pull along the axle centerline until the clip collapses and the joint walks out.

OTC lists it for the inner CV joints on 1986-and-later Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable, and it works on other front-drive and transaxle applications that use the same hidden retaining-ring design. It is a common pull on Ford AXOD, AX4S, AX4N and 4F50N transaxle jobs, where the axle has to come out to drop the unit.

On the bench the job goes like this: drain the fluid or tilt the vehicle so the side seal does not dump, separate the outer joint from the knuckle, slip the fork behind the inner housing, thread the slide hammer on, and give it short sharp hits. The pull is straight, so you do not chew up the case lip, gouge the side seal bore, or bend the dust shield the way a bar does. That matters on an aluminum case, where one cracked ear or scored seal bore turns an axle swap into a case replacement.

Overall length is about 25 in, and the tool weighs about 8 lb, so there is enough hammer mass to break a stubborn clip loose without beating on it all afternoon.