Well, broke a half inch ratchet and my breaker bar trying to loosen this friggen axle nut. Unbelievable. Luckily they are both craftsman so I'll be heading to Sears for free new ones. What's your trick for getting these off? My old 94 I was able to remove them a couple times without much sweat. First time pulling them off this new to me '94.

Trying to get the rotors off as they are horribly warped and needs pads. My old trick was removing the axle nuts, pulling the axles out enough to get to the 4 bolts behind to remove the bearing carrier and get the rotors off. It's worked before but these Axle nuts aren't budging yet.

Sean

 

need to use an impact gun

 

If it broke a breaker bar once, it will do the same again. It may be overly tight. I've been able to break some w/ breaker bar, but since I bought my Ingersol Rand 1/2" air impact, these are no problem.

If you can't access an air impact, suggest heating w/ propane torch for 2-3 mins and try to break. Heat will expand the nut slightly and release some of the nut/thread friction.

good luck

 

Heating with the propane always seems to work for me also Gary

 

Used my Craftsman 1/2" impact to no avail. My breaker bar would outdo my impact any day, until yesterday when it broke. Would bet any 1/2" impact wouldn't loosen this nut at this point. With my new breaker bar I'll try heating this up pretty good with my propane torch and see if that gets it. If not, Craftsman will end up with another broken breaker bar.

 

Use air impact directly w/ no extensions to get maximum impact torque. Hopefully heat will help.

A die-grinder should be able to cut most of way through and allow cold chisel to break the nut. Careful not to damage threads, but you can buy a thread die to clean up the threads if you hit them.

good luck

 

Ive used a breaker bar with a 1 inch pipe around it so it has about 5 ft of leverage then bundled up in clothes so if it broke free and I went flying I would not get hurt. I would try heating it up again and trying the breaker bar Im amazed that the breaker bar broke you may have better luck with a new bar.

 

The outer ridge of that nut is staked into a groove in the axle stub.

I've always used a punch or a nail to push that back out so it's easier to turn the nut. Have you done that?

 

I did unstake the nut before trying to loosen it. It didn't even start to turn at all. I have a 3/4" socket and breaker bar now that I will try, after some heat. Sears did replace my broken tools no questions asked. I was not using an extension with the impact gun, however, it was not an impact socket but a regular chrome. It's all I had.

 

I think its 36mm not 3/4 although they may be close enough but be careful it could wreck the nut if its not a close enough fit.