Date:         Fri, 4 Apr 2003 15:45:21 -0800
Reply-To:     Tom Young <tomyoung1@ATTBI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Young <tomyoung1@ATTBI.COM>
Subject:      Help me get this nut off!!!
Comments: To: type2@type2.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi all:

Wilson's book on rebuilding the air-cooled VW engine states that the torque
for the nut that holds the rocker arms to the stud is 18 ft.-lbs. which sure
*seemed* like a lot given the small size of the nut, but I didn't question
it until.....  the second of the nuts I snugged down began to "stop
tightening" even though I continued to crank on it.  (Looking at the Bentley
manual - too late! - revealed that it's really supposed to be tightened to
11 ft.-lbs.)  When I reversed the nuts holding this particular rocker down
the nuts didn't come out - the studs did!

So, I went down and got the M10 nuts I needed, double-nutted the stud, and
succeeded in getting one of rocker arm nuts off.  But the other nut is
stripped and just spins.  I know there's "nut-cracker" tools you can use in
this case, but I'd rather not go buy this for a one-time deal.  I've got
cold chisels and hack saws and all kind of implements of destruction; how do
I use these items to get this nut off?

TIA.
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Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
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