Trying to divide a circle into quadrants

[Nedlaw]

Illustrator Newbie here. I'm trying to divide a circle into quadrants. I have reviewed two tutorials on this subject and -- despite TRYING to follow the directions, I am doing something wrong.

Here is the result I want:

Here is what I believe I am doing:

On one layer of the graphic...

1. Choose ellipse, draw circle, make line width 60/color gray
2. Draw 2 lines, line width 20, copy/paste/rotate so that I have a vertical cross.
3. Select all and center H & V.
4. Select the lines (only) cut/paste control-F so that they are in front.
5. Group the lines (only) (using the layers panel and Group from the Object menu)

1. Select all -- lines and circle 
2. Choose Object | path | outline stroke
3. Pathfinder | remove front.

This is the result:

I have been consistent in achieving this unremarkable result several times. Obviously, I am doing something wrong. It is possible that the tutorials are for an older version of Illustrator -- I have the latest CC version, 24.02 -- and that an extra or other step is now necessary. What puzzles me is that even though the cross is grouped, when I remove front, it removes one section of the cross, and does not remove parts of the circle. Puzzled.

Good suggestions here would be appreciated. Many thanks.

-j

[alexs95275331]

Booleans don't work well with paths. They need to be filled shapes.

1. Align everything as intended
2. Object > Expand all of it with fill & stroke checked
3. Union the two lines (now rectangles) used as the cross
4. Difference the newly-unioned cross from the circle behind it

[Ton Frederiks]

Does your circle have a fill?

Try to remove it before you do the Outline Stroke part.

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

Initially, I had no problem making this work using your instructions. It then became an adventure in figuring out what you're not doing to achieve what you've been getting. It took a while to eliminate different variables which gave me some different wrong results. I finally matched your result by selecting only the grouped outlined cross before applying the remove front Pathfinder filter. So, when you get to the step for converting to outlines do a Select>All first then apply the outline stroke and then while still selected apply remove front.

[Nedlaw]

Bill's answer is correct. I was failing to select all before Pathfinder | Remove Front. This solved the problem. Thanks!!

[Bill Silbert]

Happy to help.