Front bearing troubles...

Ok, story time. I have an '89 Xj that I've swapped an '88 dana 30 front end into. (getting rid of the vac disconnect) The other day for no apparent reason the front left wheel stripped all the lugnuts off and went bouncing down the freeway without me. This destroyed all the threads on the wheel studs, so I need to replace the hub/bearing assembly. I have read the writeups on here and elsewhere on removing these things and it seems really simple.
-Remove brakes
-remove cotter pin and retaining nut thing
-remove 36MM nut from axle shaft
-remove 3 13mm 12point bolts from rear
-pull bearing thingy off

Well I only got to the part where I'm supposed to take the big nut off. Most people say they just used an impact wrench to get it off. I tried that and it didn't work. I tried jumping on my breaker bar, and that didn't work. I tried a cheater pipe on the breaker bar, didn't work. So I heated the nut up with a torch, put the breaker bar with cheater on it, and ended up in the emergency room. The head of the breaker bar sheered off and the bar sprung back and hit me in the face leaving a nice gash that required 4 stitches. The bitch of it is that the damn nut is still in place! Anyone have any ideas on this? Could it be a reverse thread? I don't think it is, as nobody has mentioned it, and I did try turning it that way, also with no luck. I'm soaking in in penetrating oil all this week in hopes that it will help, but i'm thinking I may have to get a chisel and split the POS off of there.

Am I just missing something? Help? Please? My face hurts.

damn that sucks sorry man. I think soaking it for a while in PB will help, remember that nut has prob been on there for over 10 years.

Impact is definitely your best friend with this one as the jolting it produces will shock the rust loose along with the help of the PB.

Lots of PB + Impact. What is your impact setup?

Every time you soak it with PB, smack the nut or shaft with a hammer a few times; that helps the penetration.

JNickel101 said:

Am I missing something about the early model D30? why do you have to remove the whole bearing assembly to replace the wheel studs?

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Okay, maybe remove was the wrong word...why do you have to take apart the bearing assembly to replace wheel studs???

JNickel101 said:

Okay, maybe remove was the wrong word...why do you have to take apart the bearing assembly to replace wheel studs???

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I've got a few battle scares of my own, welcome to the fraternity.

I was thinking the same thing but didn't really want to add to his misery any by bringing it up.

I never had *that* much trouble though it was a beatch on occasion. I'm trying to think what I may have done differently. I cleaned the threads off with a wire brush, sprayed it with a good penetrating oil, brushed it again.
I put a heavy breaker bar through the axle yoke, to get a good solid start, remembering the time I used a wheel on the ground, transfer in 4X and tranny in park method and the diff to hold the axle and heard a sicking crunch while I was jumping on the breaker bar (I never did figure out what the crunch was). Besides using the diff (and drivetrain) to hold the axle seemed to add to the springiness if the whole thing. I haven't bent an axle yoke yet, though the breaker bar I traditionally use looks like a pretzel. The later model yokes (axles) do seem some softer than the early models though.
Put a well fitting socket on there, takes one with fairly thin walls, my impact sockets wouldn't fit inside the well. Hammered on the socket a little to get it seated. Used a 3/4" breaker bar and a cheater bar, total about 5-6 feet in length. Tried it first to check the fit, then jumped on the cheater bar. It sometimes took a few bounces, once 5 or 6.
I'd thought of using a floor jack on the breaker bar, but the thought gave me the willies, I was envisioning catastrophe. Either lifting the axle off the stands or something slipping and having a fairly large projectile flying through the air.
I never have used heat, thinking about the internal seals. Heat is usually my last resort. For various reasons, one being if you hit just the right temperature steel gets pretty darned soft. I avoid it on anything I may want to reuse.
The nut really isn't very thick and many of the larger sockets have a bevel on the end. The sweet part of the socket may only rest on half of the nut.
The hub often comes off early in an XJ's life cycle, to replace the axle U-joints. I grease the heck out of everything, before reassembly. Some mechanics don't bother.

I'd replace the studs with hub on the vehicle.

If you take the brake caliper and rotor off, you should be able to punch the studs out without removing the bearing. There's room behind the flange.

By the way, the nut is not reverse thread. It's just a real PITA to get off sometimes. I have also broken a breaker bar on one (thanks, Craftsman, for your warrantee!), and now always use a 3/4 inch drive wrench on them.

Now you know why all those tools come with "wear eye protection" stickers on them!

Use a die grinder and cut the nut off. That always works for me.


If it's that hard to get off you probably want to replace it anyways. And use anti-seize on it and between the knuckle and unit bearing when you put it back together.

If you remove the caliper and rotor you can actually remove the hub and axle as a whole. NAPA will press in new studs for $1 apiece plus the price of the studs. This way you don't have to remove the big axle nut!

wow...this is getting way more difficult than it has to be...

Thanks for all the sugestions! The reason I'm replacing everything is because the new bearing units have studs in them already, and seeing as to how i've never done bearings on this axle, I figured I might as well while i'm in there. My impact wrench is a crappy $9.99 unit from harbor freight. I think that may be its problem. I'll try to track down a better one this weekend.

A little off subject, but isn't an 88 model still a disco?

I 've run into the similar problem with torsion bar nuts before. Why not put the breaker bar on there with a small cheater bar and the lower the Jeep down and use the weight of the the Jeep to break it loose? Thats how I removed the ones on my 91 S-10. Good luck and take care. P.S. do use plenty of PB blaster and a lil percussive alignment with the hammer for oil penetration.

I had a problem getting this nut off last time I was workin in this area...
I had to soak the nut 3 times while it was off and standing upright allowing the fluid to soak in good.
than using an air impact wrench I sat there for about 45 seconds or more while it did its thing, before the nut finally let go.

if you have the calipers, and discs off, you should be able to get the shaft/hub assembly off together (may need BFH assistance) that way you can work on it in a vise, or somewhere more comfortable to you.

8Mud said:

The nut really isn't very thick and many of the larger sockets have a bevel on the end. The sweet part of the socket may only rest on half of the nut.

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Yeh, I've got a few specialty sockets that I've ground the bevel end off just for that reason. I'm not changing tires in a NASCAR race, so speed/ease of getting the socket on is not a priority for me...
Anyway, for this particular operation, I'd like to take a square steel plate with five lug holes and a big hole in the center. Bolt it in place and lower the vehicle weight onto it. Can't get more stable than that for some heavy breaker bar action, right? Wouldn't put any stress on the drivetrain. Anyone done anything like this?

I still think that before you go too far with this you should make sure that the bearings need replacement. They're expensive, and they're also pretty long lived, so I would not replace them if you don't have to. The studs are pretty cheap, and very easy to replace, so why replace a whole bearing just because it already has them in? Just take the rotor off and pop out the studs.

The 88 may have had a disco front end, but the model I pulled it from was solid in the front, and had the illusive D44 rear end. i think they called it the metric towing package... and yes, I yoinked the rear from it too. As for holding the axle from turning, I've got a railroad spike jammed between the u-joint housing thing and the knuckle. I had a 3/8 extension in there, but I sheered that in half as well. I think that soaking it in PB for a week and a better impact wrench should break it loose. heat may again come into play if I have to, and because i'm replacing the entire bearing assembly, i'm not really concerned with melting the crap out of the seals. We'll see how it goes.

buy yourself a nice IR 1/2 Impact and a good air compressor. They run between $250 and $300 but i have yet to find anything that gun hasn't taken off yet.

then again i do this for a living, so it's nice to have. but if it makes you feel any better, that gun was my very first purchase when i first started working in my garage. best $300ish i ever spend.

scorpio_vette said:

buy yourself a nice IR 1/2 Impact and a good air compressor. They run between $250 and $300 but i have yet to find anything that gun hasn't taken off yet.

then again i do this for a living, so it's nice to have. but if it makes you feel any better, that gun was my very first purchase when i first started working in my garage. best $300ish i ever spend.

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You just need a better gun. If you cant afford 250.00 and up guns like scorpio_vette recommends ..you can get a IR231 impact gun at Lowes for 139.00 and that gun will do the work on most anything with 500 ftlbs power, that gun has been around for years and its a beast I have owned that model since 1982 and its always got the job done.
"You will" get the nut of with that gun and 100psi behind it. May take 20-40 seconds on a real bastard hub nut like yours but it will come off. Oh and that kit they have at Lowes comes with a IR ratchet great deal
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=221131-28309-2317G&lpage=none

Breaker bar + HiLift handle for a cheater always works for me.