Dennis,

I haven't had that particular problem but last year I had terribe grief with my red MH 25 rear wheels.  It had been fitted with cut down spokes and rubber rims and I wanted them off to fit original spoke rubber rims.

After many days of fighting with heat and various pullers including an official MH one I gave up the fight when a 60 ton puller I borrowed from a large truck repair shop failed miserably.

it was then a mattter of cut the rim off by the spokes, then cut through the hub with a large cutting wheel.  This cutter wouldn't quite reach through right to the base of the back of the hub but we were 95% through and it split with a chisel and fell off as if laughing at us.  Both sides were the same.

I would have thought it might have been possible to have the hub be a slip fit back to a small butt rim on the axle leaving the wodruuf key to tighten the whole affair up and the nut to fix it on.

Also, the nuts would not turn off - unbelievably tight and I had to split these off and have new ones made.

I've heard of others having similar problems with the taper axle shafts but I think mine was perhaps an extreme case

One of the beaten offenders attached!!

John