Hub locknut help

[mildundersteer]

Hello there,
I'm in the middle of engine/ transmission removal process, and I'm having difficulty removing the hub locknut on the right side/ passenger side. I got the driver's side out without a drama, but the passenger side won't come out. I'm using the breaker bar and the pipe. I mean you loosen the nut counterclock-wise, right? Can anyone shed light on this?

The worst case, will be able to leave it until I take the whole thing out and remove the shaft from the transmission side as I remove the whole thing out of the engine bay?

Sorry by Hub locknut I meant the axle locknut.

 

[tweety2300]

There's either a pin there or the axle nut is bent into a grove on the axle. Make sure the pin is out or that you unbend the lip of the axle nut

 

[Maroon]

Sounds about right. Good luck with that.

The nut is supposed to be punched into a groove on the axle shaft, but that wouldn't stop you. You can overcome that with the tools you mention.

I forget how many ratchets and breaker bars I broke trying to get my driver's nut off one time. At one point I had 1000 lbft of torque on my driver's axle nut (my weight jumping on a 6' bar and a 1" drive ratchet). I gave up and took an angle grinder to it which of course destroyed the axle shaft. Perhaps it would have broken loose if I got some real heat on it (Oxy-acetalene, non of that propane BS), but I didn't have the opportunity. If you can get your hands on an Oxy-acetalene torch, try it.

It seems hit or miss with these axle nuts. The first time I broke my axle nuts loose I just used a 1/2" breaker. Wasn't that hard. Maybe the reason it was so difficult that one time was because I had a mechanic change a wheel bearing, and they may have overtightened it.

EDIT: On second thought, if you don't need to change the wheel bearing, just leave the nut alone and remove the knuckle and axle shaft as an assembly. You just have to detach the knuckle from the strut, lower control arm, tie rod end, and caliper. No reason to **** with that bastard axle nut.

 

[mildundersteer]

Thanks. It appears that where the nut's lip was bent previously is about 1/4 past the notch on the shaft. Whoever worked on it overtighten the nut.

Anyways, yeah I ended up taking off the whole knuckle assembly because I had no choice at the time but I didn't know it was OK to do that. It'll be fun to put the shaft back in though.

Speaking of the drive shafts, I'm not replacing them. I'm simply putting them back in. However, do I always need to replace the ring clip thing or can I reuse them?

 

[The_big_dill]

Are you talking about the circlip?

It is professionally recommended to replace them, but I have gotten away without replacing a lot of things on our other car and it was fine.

 

[mildundersteer]

So it's time to put the axle shafts back in but they won't go in, both sides. I kept them as straight as possible and they'd go in until it hits the ring clip (circlip?) I hammered the shafts from the other end but all it did was make small scratches on the clips. Does that mean the clips' diameter went out of spec? I'm reusing the clips that were on the shafts. I don't have tools to measure it accurately.

Can I just buy the clips themselves, or does that have to come in with the whole boot kit?

 

[Maroon]

Those clips are a b****. I don't think buying new ones would do any good because to get them on you have to stretch them over the end of the shaft which will deform them anyhow. I tried taking the old ones off, bending them, then putting them back on. Doesn't work. If you have the means, you could heat the clips with a torch until red hot and then pinch them with pliers while they are on the shaft.

You're supposed to have the opening of the clip up when you install.

I just went through this on the driver's side. I tried for a long time to just slide the damned thing in. I finally gave up and smacked the other end of the shaft with a block of wood and it popped in.

 

[pcb]

I remember one guy posted that he went underneath to hold the whole axle shaft as straight as possible and got someone else to hit the knuckle with a sledgehammer.

(Although the only person available was his wife he took a couple hits himself)

 

[mildundersteer]

Success! I got the drive shafts back in. Your suggestions and other info I could find on this forum worked!

The key was to set the shafts as straight as possible. On the passenger side, since the caliper, rotor and knuckle were already off, I took the strut assembly off as well, and that made it whole a lot easier.

Since my girlfriend refused to help, I used a thin rope to hung the shaft from the strut mount screw holes to keep shaft straight while I hammer it in. I used the hand hammer with a rubber head. And all it needed was a bit more thrash to the hammer than I applied previously. No new ring clip was necessary.

 

[Hank3]

Way to throw said GF under the bus...Lol.

 

[tweety2300]

Women aren't huge on getting down on the ground to help. My wife will generally help with whatever I need but she usually draws the line there, or if she just did her nails