Hub Nut won't come off

get somone to hit the end of the socket while you lean on it, worked fine for me on umpteen motors, I only have a 1/2" drive set.

freelance said:

you will struggle with half inch sockets, nut is far tighter than half inch is designed for.

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you shouldnt do unless cheepy style sockets i use 1/2 set for most heavy work including hub nuts , 2ft bar and tube should do it my 1/2 inch batytery guns undone all ive had to do over he years ,torque wrench for retightening isnt essntial at all as long as you get it tight , theres no other reason than the nut been tight enough it doesnt undo , a tube on a 2ft breaker bar would achieve it with ease , if a nut is really stuck hitting each flat in turn centrally hard with a good sizes hammer and punch etc will eventually loosen it ,you eventually stretch the nut as well as the shock breaking rust

has the stake nut been dented into the slot?

if so you will need to open it up with a suitable chisel/screwdriver.

when i replaced all my abs rings the other week i was lucky enough my 1/2 snap on gear was enough for me altho i did have a air compressor lol

i had the same just drill a 5mm hole down the nut bang with chisel & it came off easy

Well I tackled the front Hub Nuts on Kay today. The gearbox & IRD are coming off, so while it was still on the ground, I thought I'd start by loosening the hub nuts. It was just me, so I wanted to loosen them on the ground so the hand brake couple hold the car and the tyres hold the front wheels.

I researched it first because I've heard they are a bugger and came across this thread. I was going to use a 32mm spanner I have, but obviously with the wheels on, that was a no-no, so the 32mm socket was used. My chosen method was to use a 2 1/2 foot iron pole over the handle of my ratchet and to lift the pole with a trolley jack. Started with the drivers side. Jack it a bit, then whack the socket with a hammer/chisel, and repeat.



Driver's side shifted and done - so quality result

On to the passenger side and use the same technique. This one though was even tighter and the net result was.....



Bugger, I thought that might happen!

So down to the store where the socket set came from to see if I could get it exchanged - cos it just broke (didn't take the 32mm socket and iron pole to show them!). As it happens, the bloke says its got a 3 year warranty and that fracture is an obvious manufacturing fault - come back with the receipt or copy of your bank statement showing when you got it and we'll replace it - another quality result

Anyway, while I was there, I bought a breaker bar - which I should have done to start with really! Got back to shift it with that, and it just will not budge. It's now bent the iron bar and the nut has not shifted. I've been whacking it like crazy with the hammer/chisel every few pumps of the jack - but no luck.

I'll have another go tomorrow.

Occasionally the hubnuts on these do stick, its an absolute b*****d when it happens.

My drivers side recently wouldn't come off, I spent hours hammering at it with a snapon mg725 (on overpressure) and it just refused to shift. Nearly broke a 3/4 inch breaker bar using the jacking trick, the wheel spun in the end before the nut broke.

In the end I had to borrow the grandfather of all 3/4 inch snapon breaker bars and it took two of us whaling on it before it broke loose with a noise like a gunshot and made the wheel bounce off the deck.

Good luck!

I was thinking to just drive backwards and make the car 'turn the bar' buy digging it into the concrete - thankfully though this is all occurring because the clutch is broke - so I didn't get to realise why I shouldn't have tried that!

400 Nm/295 lb ft is to much for cheap tools. Specially if you are trying to undo it. 1/2" torque wrench should tighten it with ease but one going that high will be expensive. 3/4" gear is the way to go undoing something that tight. Even good quality 1/2" stuff will struggle at times with stuff that tight.

An mg725 is rated at 1000NM standard torque and 1600NM overpressure - mine is fitted with wide bore hose to stop restriction losses so I know it actually produces the stamped torque.

Still wouldn't shift the damn bolt.

I suspect that most of the problem is garages massively overtorquing the nuts when they have the hub apart for something. 400 NM is only 40 kilos of force at 1 meter, which is easy to generate with standard 1/2 inch kit.

My drivers took at least 2000NM to break it away...

wammers said:

400 Nm/295 lb ft is to much for cheap tools. Specially if you are trying to undo it. 1/2" torque wrench should tighten it with ease but one going that high will be expensive. 3/4" gear is the way to go undoing something that tight. Even good quality 1/2" stuff will struggle at times with stuff that tight.

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Hell my truck it is 150/165ftlbs I use a 6 point socket and a 18" breaker bar. If I can't push it down to loosen, then I just stand on it and give a little jump. Never been defeated yet. ( nice to be a fat arse yank at times) but with the road salts they can really make a lug nut rust up solid. Copper cote just a smigin and never have had a issue in decades.But I wire brush the threads first

Thor1950 said:

Hell my truck it is 150/165ftlbs I use a 6 point socket and a 18" breaker bar. If I can't push it down to loosen, then I just stand on it and give a little jump. Never been defeated yet. ( nice to be a fat arse yank at times) but with the road salts they can really make a lug nut rust up solid. Copper cote just a smigin and never have had a issue in decades.But I wire brush the threads first

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165 lb ft and 295 lb ft have a subtle difference John. Specially when they have been on a while, you always need more to undo them than it takes to torque them up.

It definitely takes more than 11 stone bouncing on the end of the bar!

GrumpyGel said:

It definitely takes more than 11 stone bouncing on the end of the bar!

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As steady pull with leverage is better than bouncy bouncy.

wammers said:

As steady pull with leverage is better than bouncy bouncy.

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Turn the bar so you can stand on it, parallel to the floor, add extension ... walk out slowly till it gives in ... doddle ...

Dippypud said:

Turn the bar so you can stand on it, parallel to the floor, add extension ... walk out slowly till it gives in ... doddle ...

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That would be steady pressure with leverage then?

Dippypud said:

Turn the bar so you can stand on it, parallel to the floor, add extension ... walk out slowly till it gives in ... doddle ...

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and the bar will flex till it hits the floor, its better to pull extended bar up unless you want knuckles full of gravel, though without decent tools splitting the nut might be simpler

wammers said:

That would be steady pressure with leverage then?

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Not that steady ... I wobble like a duck with St Vitus Dance on the bloody thing ...

jamesmartin said:

and the bar will flex till it hits the floor, its better to pull extended bar up unless you want knuckles full of gravel

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My knuckles hit the floor after my feet I'll have you know .....

Dippypud said:

My knuckles hit the floor after my feet I'll have you know .....

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2 separate points