Working on the right rear wheel of a 5-speed... I've unstaked the nut and now I'm trying to get it off. In the past, working with other exxies, a half-inch drive socket handle and a length of pipe maybe three feet long has been enough leverage to break the nut loose. But on this car...
The thing won't move.
I've put enough force on it to break the screwdriver that I use to lock the wheel from turning, and when I tried a stouter screwdriver, I just broke my half-inch drive socket handle (35-yr-old Sears Craftsman). I've heated it. I've drowned it in PB Blaster and heated it again and drowned it again and let it stand overnight, wash, rinse, repeat.
Anywhere else, I'd work on the nut with a hacksaw until I could split it off, but because the nut is set back inside the hub, I can't reach it with a hacksaw.
Any other ideas? Surely I'm not the first person to have had this problem?
Do you have access to a compressor and an impact gun? That's how I got mine of when I R&R the rear bearing on my 79. Maybe you can borrow one from a buddy if you don't have your own.
Check Kevin's thread from last week for some other thoughts.
I usually use a 3/4" drive socket and big slide bar with a pipe on it. I have used this method before on many cars. Usually I stand on the brakes and get my father to jump on the end of the pipe (he gets more torque than I do) and something usually lets loose, most of the time it's the axle nut. Be careful how you lock the hub as I found that using cv joint bolts and a pry bar to lock the hub if you don't have brakes can be bad on the cv bolts as they can only take so much abuse. If all else fails find a friend with a big impact wrench and that might fix it.
This is one time when an impact might be the better solution. The sharp blows from the impact is more likely to knock the nut loose than the steady load from the breaker bar. I had this same problem with a crank nut. The impact did get it after a few tries.
If all else fails, hub carriers are not expensive. Its probably easier to just buy another one with a stub shaft. You will likely spend more time effort and money trying to get the nut off. Not to mention all of the resulting frustration.
As mentioned, impact has far greater nut/bolt loosening power than constant pressure in most cases. This is where inertia can work for you. the mass of the object can keep the object in place while the shock loading from the impact wrench "shakes" the threaded joint apart. I don't wrench on a car without one for a host of reasons. And... not all impact wrenches are created equal. The double hammer ones from IR are the common and work well. My favorite impact and air tools in general are Atlas Copco. The ones made in China..very iffy most of the time.
At first, it just laughed at the impact wrench too... I was about to give up and buy new parts
hit it with one last dose of heat and PB-blaster, waited twenty minutes and tried again... and this time the forward/reverse with the impact wrench got it off in a few minutes of noisy clattering back and forth.
I am now a believer. I doubt I'll use the impact much - it's heavy and noisy and clumsy and I've managed to beat down a LOT of recalcitrant nuts without one - but it's good to have a backup.
BTW, this was the 1/2" plug-in electrical that is on sale at Harbor Freight - a violation of my general rule that I will buy good tools or not at all - but it did get it done.
You will be glad to have it on more than one occasion. Now get ready for the next challenge... the retaining ring. Some come off easy, mine was on like your axle nut.
I made a tool out of a Ford truck bearing puller to get mine off. If you already have the proper tool great, or if you can get yours to come off by driving it with a hammer and punch, great again. However, if you can't get it moving with a minimum of force, fabricate some type of tool because those late model retaining rings are going for $30 a piece.
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