Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:53:16 -0600
Reply-To: Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Subject: Re: removing rear axle nut
In-Reply-To: <EFD57872831C41E880B978EB67CBD8EC@troyb5bff49d63>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
I may have told this story before, but here goes. Parting out the 86
Syncro, I got down to the dreaded task of removing those rear axle
nuts and in hindsight, should've at least loosened them before the
tranny and halfshafts came off. Regardless, I had no trouble getting
the passenger side off while my son stood on the hydraulic brake
pedal,for friction/resistance, but getting the driver's side off was
another story. I've never seen an nut on so solidly in all my
life!! I had my 3/4 Craftsman Flex handle and 1 13/16" socket(back
then when I bought those tools, no one seemed to stock metric 3/4"
drive sockets). I got out my 3' long cheater pipe and brought the
son out for more brake action. Yes, I pre treated the area with PB
Blaster, several times over 3 days. Yes, I whacked it with a
hammer(in the proper places BTW), but no, I didn't use any heat. I
mounted the flexhandle and socket and foolishly tried to pop it loose
with just the flex handle. Adding the cheater pipe, I was now almost
5' away from the nut and bouncing my 220# on the very end of
the pipe by standing on it, and no luck getting it to pop loose. Do
the math folks!!!. I was all ready to have a friend in the mobile
tire changing business to come over and bust it with his air tool set
up, and then I remembered that during the last "world's largest
garage sale" held here in town last fall, I had spent a whopping $10
on a brand new Chinese made 12volt DC cigarette plug lighter-powered.
1/2" drive impact wrench. I rationalized that if it busted even a
few nuts loose before it crapped out, I would have gotten my money';s
worth out of it. It was advertised as being able to generate 225 ft/
lbs. of torque and since that was only 2/3 of what I needed, I
thought it would at least make a good story if I tried it.
The thing is cheap and cheesy, and the motor whirs for a few seconds
until it gets up to speed and then somehow it hammers one time on the
nut. I did have to go out and buy a 1/2-3/4" impact adapter for $13,
but I figured that would last longer than the wrench. Patience was
definitely a virtue, as after about 2-3 minutes of
brrrrrrrrr-WHAP, brrrrrrrr-WHAP, I couldn't believe my eyes when I
saw the socket move a 1/4" counter clockwise!!! Over the next
minute, it had moved some more and soon after , spun all the way
off. A couple of Thank you Jesus-es later, I was reminded of the
David and Goliath tale.
Since then I've used that unit to pop virtually dozens of stuck rusty
bolts and nuts off that syncro including the front frame bolts, upper
and lower ball joint nuts, and it actually broke off the rusted-in
outer bolts on the rear control arms. One of these days it will die,
and I will feel compelled to give it a proper funeral and burial. I
wouldn't use the cheap a$$ chrome thin walled sockets that come with
the tool, but $15 at the local farm supply store got me a set of
19/21/22/24/27 mm impact sockets and I was ready for most loosening
situations.
good luck getting the nuts off, but that trick of mounting the
bar/socket cheater pipe and then driving the vehicle forward or
reverse(depending on which side you're working on) will get a try
next time I do that job.
End of story
DM&FS
At 04:54 PM 2/27/2009, Troy wrote:
>Hi there:
>
>Looking for articles on how best to remove the rear hub/axle nut on
>my 89 Westy (2wd) to install some longer studs for a wheel upgrade.
>If I recall this is one of those things that requires a huge amount
>of torque, and specialized equipment. I searched on the Samba, I
>came up with 150 pages worth of info, so I guess I did not enter the
>information into the search engine correctly. I had forgotten how to
>do a search on the archives here. Could someone please tell me how
>to do that? I had a link bookmarked once upon a time, but now that I
>need it, I can't find it.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Troy
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