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How to remove axle nut sacrificially

Cottontail

Cottontail

Three-De Off-Road
NAXJA Member
Location
Nashville, TN
I am going to rebuild my short shaft with new hub, bearing, rotor, pads, and u-joint.

However, I can't get the axle nut off. I've already shattered one 36 mm socket, tried penetrating oil, tried heat, and tried an impact wrench. I've cranked on it with a 3 foot breaker bar, and (against my better judgment) stood on the breaker bar - all 240 pounds of me - to try to break it loose. It just won't come.

So, is it advisable to try to get a Dremel in and try to cut away at the nut? Will freezing it help?

Thoughts? Since I am going to replace the hub, I can damage that without repercussion.
 
I'd center punch the side of the nut and drill a hole through with a Cobalt drill bit. You are usually better off with a moderate or slow speed and pressure, than you are with high speed generating heat and dulling the bit. Pick the bit so it is slightly smaller than the distance between the threads and the outside of the nut.

After you get a couple of holes through the side of the nut, you can crack it with a cold chisel. Use the cold chisel over one of your holes and whack it with a BFH. Not straight down on the hole but at an angle.

The stub shaft threads for the nut might be rusted rotten. You may need another stub shaft.
 
Have you gone through multiple heating cooling cycles? heat with a propane or map torch for 1 -2 minutes. then spray with water, then smack all around with a sledge to loosen things up. dont damage the threads.

repeat this process 20X.

might as well spray with some penetrating oil at this point.

once you are done, do not use a 3 foot breaker bar, that is not enough. take a 5-6ft foot piece of tube or pipe and slider it over the breaker bar. then really give it a go. The extra leverage will be substantial. It should come at that point.


8mud brings up a good point. If the nut/threads are rusted to hell, then you might just need to cut it all off.


Also, the axle shaft will spin if you dont put a pry bar between the U Joints and the yokes and the inner C to stop it from spinning.
 
I may end up trying some of these tricks. I may just decide to use this as a trail spare and go grab one in better shape from the junkyard to rebuild.

Thanks y'all.
 
i had to drill two holes 180° opposite of eachother in the face of the nut then hit them with the air chisel till the nut broke in half. i had the same problems as you, even went as far as me and one of my brothers hanging off the end of a 10 foot piece of pipe on a 3/4" breaker bar, damn thing still wouldn't budge.

anybody reading this if you've never had the hub nuts off before, do it at home before its impossible to do on the trail, and put anti-sieze on the stub before you put it back together. just my 2¢
 
Factory axleshafts? Just get a new stub and ujoint and forget about it.

Or do what I did, and buy a 3/4" harbor freight breaker bar, 4-5 feet of pipe to slide over it, and a 1 7/16" 3/4-drive socket ($10 at autozone, duralast is fine, that size is half a mm from being the right size) and go to town on it with that. I popped a rusted d30 axle nut off that had laughed at heat, penetrating oil, heat and penetrating oil, my IR231C impact cranked to 150psi, broke two 1/2" breaker bars, bent my pipe wrench (trying to hold it in place, not on the nut) and shattered the drive slug on my 1/2" craftsman ratchet. It came off in one pull with one arm... very satisfying *pop* I might add.

It's expensive for this one job, but add a few more large size sockets and suddenly you can break anything loose on a jeep without trouble. Pitman arm nut? Sure, easy. d30 and 8.25 pinion nuts? Cake. Hell, I did two d60 pinion nuts for a friend of mine across town in under an hour with no power tools and one arm the other week, they just popped right off.
 
Go to junkyard, buy a good used shaft.

At the local U-Pull-It, axle shafts with unit hubs still attached are $11 each, at the full service yard, if I pull my own they are about $35.00. I have a small stack of spares in the garage.
 
May be a stupid question, but why not put the breaker bar so it leans on the ground and try to move the jeep? The jeep should be enough to pop the nut loose....or break more tools
 
1990JEEPXJ said:
May be a stupid question, but why not put the breaker bar so it leans on the ground and try to move the jeep? The jeep should be enough to pop the nut loose....or break more tools
Click to expand...

Well, the tires are off the Jeep and the axle is supported by jackstands, and I have another set of jack stands under the frame rails. I really don't have any method of moving the Jeep, unless I push it forward and let it drop off the jackstands....which I am not inclined to do.
 
put the tire back on and drop it to the ground.
 
If you have 3/4 drive tools you can use a floor jack to apply the right amount of pressure. That's what I did on my d60 pinion nut under the jeep.

I wouldn't do that with 1/2 drive tools unless you want catastrophic failure.
 
We tried to do my cousin's 97 TJ with just a 3/4 breaker bar and couldn't get it even with all of us taking turns jumping on the breaker (all 230+ and one over 300) so we pulled the whole shaft to take it somewhere with bigger tools, then ended up breaking it free with a Harbor Freight electric impact and holding the shaft by hand. IIRC the torque spec on that nut is 175 ft lbs and even rusty should eventually come off with an impact. My guess is someone has done the hubs in the past and cranked that nut down tight as hell with an impact and probably jacked the threads up anyways, so may want to grab a new one from the junkyard anyways.

When you do replace it make sure you use a little anti-seize and a torque wrench so you can remove them again in the future. Also if you had one tire on the ground still, you could just put it in 4wd to keep the axle from spinning.
 
Last edited:
You may want to try a stronger impact.


I use an Aircat AC1000TC as my primary 1/2" at work. (It's pricey, but I'm a pro and can justify the expense.) I have had very few bolts it won't remove.

+1 on the torque wrench and anti seize. Over-torquing the hub nut may accelerate bearing wear and failure. Also, use anti seize on the outer circumference of the bearing. It will save you loads of trouble in the event of a field repair later on down the line.
 
Last edited:
four_shot said:
Also, use anti seize on the outer circumference of the bearing. It will save you loads of trouble in the event of a field repair later on down the line.
Click to expand...


Very good point.His driver side hub was so stuck, after about 30 minutes of agony I ended up splitting it into several pieces with a hand sledge before it finally came apart.
 
I had one axle nut on a 87 that was seized horribly as well that had spent its 21 year old life in Kodiak, AK. With the tire on the ground I had broken two 1/2" ratchets (K&D) and a 1/2" breaker bar with cheater bars. Then I borrowed a friends 3/4 snap-on set. The tire spun when I turned it, so I stuck a screw driver in the shaft and it got mangled. So I had ended up with a 3/4 breaker bar with a jack handle as a cheater bar and a 1/2" extension that ended up bent as well to finally break the nut loose. Sometimes its go big or go home other times its work smarter not harder, depending on how maintenance was or was not performed by the PO's will determine this at times. Good luck
 
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