Front Hub Nuts

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

I've never been so frustrated with a single bit of car for so long. I tried a while ago to remove my front hub nuts to change my drive shafts to no avail but it could be said i was under equipped. I have since stripped the shell for painting and had to resort to removing the front struts inc drive shafts in one lump. Now I really need to get this sorted, I've get a 3ft breaker bar, chunky socket and massive vice along with plus gas and a blow torch. This morning I nearly broke my arm trying to get this damn thing off, I even cut off the collar of the nut that you bend into the notch on the shaft to make sure that wasn't holding it fast. Is there anything else I can try?

[M@tt 77]

scaffold bar on the end of your breaker bar, seriously!

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

scaffold bar on the end of your breaker bar, seriously!

 

Isn't there a chance i might break my breaker bar?

[M@tt 77]

i guess it really depend on how might they are but a good quality 1/2" breaker bar with another 3ft of scaffold bar on teh end should hold up no probs

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Take them to a garage with a proper air impact gun, drop them a few quid for the tea fund and get them to whizz them off for you.

[M@tt 77]

also might sound daft but your definitely trying to undo it in the right direction aren't you? ie just double check your not tightening it

 

its a misatke we've all done in the past

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

also might sound daft but your definitely trying to undo it in the right direction aren't you? ie just double check your not tightening it

 

its a misatke we've all done in the past

 

Thought of that one as I,ve done that before. I think I'll try a garage as that must be the most powerful way to remove them! I'll let you know

[Baz 421]

I have a 3ft & 5ft scaffold bars in the workshop for this very reason, and i use them with a 1" drive socket set/bar etc!

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

I have a 3ft & 5ft scaffold bars in the workshop for this very reason, and i use them with a 1" drive socket set/bar etc!

 

How do I hold the hub still enough for that kind of pressure? It still being on the car Isn't an option as the shell is currently drying in my father in law's garage?! (Which looks amazing BTW)

[AdamP 0]

Get a garage to stick an impact gun on them. I've lost so many hours and broken so many tools trying to do it myself that if they wont come undone with my breaker bar and extension by hand I whizz the car to the local garage with the right size socket and get them to undo it, I then tighten it back up with my breaker bar and drive home knowing I can undo it when I get there!

 

Other tricks include driving the car forward/backward against the breaker bar and jumping on the extension... risky business though.

Edited August 18, 2010 by AdamP

[S@m 156]

How do I hold the hub still enough for that kind of pressure? It still being on the car Isn't an option as the shell is currently drying in my father in law's garage?! (Which looks amazing BTW)

 

I will add to the common opinion; I use a 5ft scaffold pole as an extension for this job and even then they can be quite stubborn but I think you will struggle to do it with the whole strut/shaft assembly off the car to be honest.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

3', 6', 38' poles are all no bloody use when you cannot hold it all still.

 

Impact gun will have them undone in no time.

[Cameron 16]

Yeah if it's off the car then don't even try it, you'll have to have a MASSIVE vice to be able to hold the shaft still while you exert hundreds of Nm on the hub nut! Just take it to any garage and get them to do it with a windy gun, it'll be off in seconds.

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

Yeah if it's off the car then don't even try it, you'll have to have a MASSIVE vice to be able to hold the shaft still while you exert hundreds of Nm on the hub nut! Just take it to any garage and get them to do it with a windy gun, it'll be off in seconds.

 

 

Thanks for all your advice guys, to the garage it is then! In future I'll remeber to get some scaffold and undo them while the car is grounded.

[Cameron 16]

Just for reference, I've always used a Halfords 48" breaker (1/2" drive) with a 2m length of tubing slipped over and it hasn't broken yet! They're tougher than they look.

[flipperthebushkangaroo 2]

Failed miserably to get mine off last year, ended up drilling the bl00dy thing off took ages!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rob_the_Sparky 9]

Not quite sure what all the fuss is about, maybe I'm just lucky, but I've had 3 off with a 1/2" drive and a Halfords 36" bar. Granted it takes me standing on the end of the bar and bouncing up and down until it gives in, with the car chocked with bricks on all 4 wheels, but all have come undone (one after someone else had given up). I'm not the heaviest bloke either before you all make that comment!

 

I use a deep impact socket (no extensions) so the end of the breaker bar is pretty much level with the outside of the wheel.

 

I would never attempt it off the car though...that is some serious force needed, no way a vice could hold it.

[Anthony 1,002]

They're tougher than they look.

That's open to debate, as I've broken three (maybe four even) of the longest Halfords 1/2" breaker bars now, and only one of them was using an extension with it! All failed in a similar way, with either the pin itself, or the casting at either end of it, shearing.

 

That said, I've not broken one in quite some time now, so they've possibly improved the design/materials... well, either that, or I've not been eating as much spinach

 

Not quite sure what all the fuss is about, maybe I'm just lucky, but I've had 3 off with a 1/2" drive and a Halfords 36" bar.

Some are tighter than others - I remember one that couldn't be shifted using either a long bar, nor a 1/2" windy gun or a heavy-duty Snap-On impact gun - try as you might, it just wouldn't shift for love nor money. Indeed, I think one of the broken breaker bars I mentioned above was done trying to shift that hub nut.

 

Not to be defeated, we had to resort in using an inch-drive impact gun about the size of a small-pneumatic drill that had to be held very firmly with two hands to be able to control the kick-back from it. Even that took a few seconds of rattling away at it before it finally came undone. No idea why it was so tight, but I'm confident that there's no way you'd have ever got that one undone by hand.

[Cameron 16]

I reckon somewhere along the line it's been done up with a windy gun, that or it's just corroded in place.

 

I think the worst case I've ever had was when it took the wheels chocked, handbrake on, engine running and foot hard on the brakes while me and a mate used a 3/4" breaker with a 1.5m length of roll cage tube and it still took some heaving!

 

Ps I'd love to see the 1" windy gun in action!

Edited August 19, 2010 by Cameron

[joe1joe 3]

Rememer that they are usualy done up with a gun.

 

Dunno wat all the fuss is about

:lol:

[jackherer 543]

I've had my fair share of difficult 205 hubnuts but none compared to an Alfa V6 one I tried to undo. I was using my mates MOT workshop and had access to some pretty big rattle guns but they didn't do anything so we borrowed a massive one from the place next door that fixes JCBs etc and even that wouldn't touch it. In the end we cut it off with an oxy acetylene cutter, surprisingly the thread on the driveshaft survived and the wheelbearing survived the heat, its been fine for several thousand miles since!

[shalmaneser 26]

just to echo others, I used a six foot scaffold pole, did the job beautifully!

[Rupertfinch 6]

I had to resort to sending my drivers side one to an engineering firm, think that may have been overkill, but when it's off the car it's a massive pain in the hole.

[welshpug 1,655]

I remember I was taking apart a scrapper 306 a while back with a friend and we didn't have a hub nut Socket, but I did have a sharp chisel and a 32oz Ball pein hammer.

 

Shortly afterwards I had a cracked nut and undid it by hand

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

I remember I was taking apart a scrapper 306 a while back with a friend and we didn't have a hub nut Socket, but I did have a sharp chisel and a 32oz Ball pein hammer.

 

Shortly afterwards I had a cracked nut and undid it by hand

 

Well I have to say that I'm just about tempted to go and get a big compressor and socket gun. Just took the troublesome front hubs complete with springs and drive shafts to my father in law who has all the compressor gear, all I had to take was the 35mm socket, 5 seconds later they were undone! He didn't even need to put them in a vice. Bearing in mind i 've got a big vice and a 3ft breaker bar and I couldn't shift it even with heat it just goes to show that the hammering action those things produce is so powerful!!

 

I just need to convince him to get a press now