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Date:         Thu, 3 Jul 2008 10:31:36 -0500
Reply-To:     Ben Cichowski <aquasheck@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben Cichowski <aquasheck@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Removing stuck nuts and bolts e.g. Axle Nut
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

Hey all,

I've read several posts on this forum and on various web pages discussing horror stories regarding the removal of the rear axle nut on the vanagon. This nut is torqued to something like 320-360 ft pounds (gotta check the manual for the exact spec) and can be a bit of a bear to remove. Well, I may run into problems with all the "easy" stuff, but removing this nut was a breeze...and this technique will work for other stuck nuts and bolts as well.

WAY WAY better than any penetrant that I have ever used (PB Blaster, 3M 5-way, Marvel's Mystery....all garbage in comparison)

Here you go:

1. Heat up the nut or bolt (don't worry, we're not looking for dissimilar expansion of the metal to do the work, so this will indeed work for stuck bolts, not just nuts) 2. Take a candle and touch it to the hot threads where they interface 3. Re-heat to make sure you melted the wax - it will wick into the threads very nicely 4. If it's a nut, take it off now as it will have likely expanded because that is probably where you held the flame. If it's a stuck bolt, you may want to let it cool, depending on how you heated it as you don't want it's expansion to work against you. 5. Put your wrench or socket on and go for it.

Just took my axle nuts off last night with this method. I tried it without first just to see how bad they were....my 42" long (actually my neighbor's) super heavy duty 1" drive socket used for working on tractors started bowing!! - That nut was on there....then I tried this method....and it came off like it was put on by hand!

I've heard of this method before, but never seen it posted on any of our "stuck bolt" discussions, and never tried it myself. Well, it sure works.

Cheers, Ben

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