These are 4 years old pictures.... hope, these give you some better intuitions:




If you keep blow torching your spindles, these will be the next messes waiting for you:

 

I came up with the final decison now i will use the gun and it's $ 170.00 and your saying that i could use it once and then return it i thought open items can't be turned in if so i will buy it and return it. i had to wait for x amounts of money so i could do what i wanted to do. so know i had enough of this B-S. thanks.

 

HOLY shizznets that's a big mess hell no...
the gun is it that's it.

 

yeah, that's a good questions.... I never had any problems with returning electronic stuffs to home depot and Lowes, so I don't know how about your case but... just take the risk man. You'll feel much better once you had this work done. Trust me. Cheers!

 

I will probley try to turn it in and then i will try see if they will give me store credit or a gift card don't know but i am getting the gun then i will get back thanks for the help and info.

 

your welcome.... if they ask you any questions, just give them all kind of bs... tell them this 240ft lb blah sucker failed to release my 160ft lb axle nut. It was not sold as advertised...blah blah blah... they'll bite it. Trust me. You'll be fine. Just make sure you clean off the greases, polish it up with wd40 nice and shiny so it looks new.

 

I dont understand why you removed that entire hub assembly when you can just pull off the knuckle faster and get to control arm quicker..

 

That's because there's two reasons 1 is the studs are on the spidel is stripped and crooked reason 2 is the car is motion at that time so the hub is jammed tight and crooked. I wish it was only the control arm.

 

LOL OK oK, I guess everyone spent too much time staring at those *pretty* pictures and ignored what went on during our discussion.

VG.. mentioned in the last page, he *blow torched* his axle nut. So, I advised him NOT to do it because doing so will result in drying up his *wheel bearing grease*.

Here is the fact, most wheel bearing greases will withstand temp up to a maximum of 550F. A blow torch can easily heat metal up to 2500F!!! How to tell? Remember what you learned in physic? every time you heat up any metal, you excite its molecular state causing it to release photons or light for that matter. As you increasing the temp, the first color you'll see, pardon me I'm a little rusty here, I remember it was reddish-orange and that's already exceeding 1300F!! Anyone of those $20 blow torque you get from HD or Lowes will do that... esp, Mapp.

So those 5 pictures you saw, the last bottom 3 aren't just the hub removal but the *wheel bearing removal* as well. I was just warning him so he knows *how painful it is to deal with removing/installing new wheel bearing*. Even though I had wheel bearing removal adapter to save me times and money. I ended up spending 25% the amount of effort it would took someone without adapters. Nevertheless, it still cost lots of money, aching muscles, and headache to deal with.

My situation was different from his. I had to do it because my wheel bearings got shot. His was different, so I was just *warning* him before he ended up ditching for these messes.

 

LOL NO you don't in order to install control arm. Just get your axle nuts off and axle outta way. And you're done with stage 1..... move to stage 2. Remove your control arm.

 

that's what i told my friend that i don't need to buy a JY spidel he said you have to buy a JY one cause the one that's already on is shot and jammed and crooked.

 

ok, I see your point. sorry about that... well you have way too much stuffs on your plate right now. why don't you complete this control arm works first then worry about the hub later? I know we all have that urge to get it done all at once but you really having way too much stuffs to deal with. just solve it one at a time or you might confuse yourself.

when get to the hub, come back and I'll post more related pics and cheap tools needed. Just so you know, it's better to take time to research each job before you start working so you have time to get all the necessary tools. Esp, those stuffs off ebay, they take really long time to ship. You could've gotten that same impact wrench from HD off ebay for $50 shipped.

changing the hub isn't quite as easy as you think because the outer sleeve of the wheel bearing assembly will attach to it as you remove it. So you might end up changing the entire wheel bearing assembly while your at. Because chances are, you'll score scratches and it will get ruined.

 

so let me get this straight your saying that i have to remove the wheel bearing too because i might off barbecued the wheel bearing with the blow torch.....DAMN i was afraid of that..

 

it really depending on how much and how long you heated it.

why don't you complete your control arm work first, put everything back on, driving around and see if it drags? trust me you'll automatically know it when it drags. it will make hellacious noises. otherwise, don't worry about it.

 

that's what iam going to do i will try start on the control arm then go from there .

 

I got you a gift man....here are 428 high quality photos from old digital camera taken back in 2004 when I was in S. Carolina. Back when I went buck wild. It's 384MB. Just wait another 5 hours and it should be fully uploaded:

http://www.cis.syr.edu/~bvtran/car/V...%20RELATED.ISO

It's a CD image, so you have to either burn it or use any virtual cd/dvd software to view it.

 

agh nevermind, it won't let me... ran out of quota again. screw it

 

i just put a new contrloe arm on my max, due to hitting a curb at 35, ANYWAY




all i did was


remove wheel brakes
remove strut
i just took the axle out of the tranny adn the whole hub assymbe out
because i could not get the axle nut off at all i tryed impact and all
after that it was cake

except for getting the axle back in

 

LOL for all these times we discussed how to remove that axle nut. I forgot... you don't need to remove that axle nut at all in order to do control arm. LOL. I need to pay more attention. But then again, why did VG... wanted to remove it in the first place?

as a matter of fact, you don't even need to remove the spindle or strut... just remove the front sway bar joint and 3 ball joint nuts. That's it, press down the down the arm so it moves away from strut assembly. Remove front control arm nut. Remove the 2 rear front control arm nuts (the 22mm ones). Grab a long 3 jaw puller and some chisels. Chop the front bush and pull. Chisel the rest of the bushes. Using a lock plier brake off old inner sleeve from the front control arm. If that didn't works. Then you need use a rotary device or dremel, cut then split it with a chisel and hammer. Lube, install new control arm... put everything back together. You can torque the 2 rear control arm bush nuts while the car was jacked. But you can't do it to the front. Drop the car to the ground, preferably onto a ramp so you can get in there and torque the front bush. Done!

 

you know vgmaxman, if you were closer I'd stop by and help you but you're too far.

 

Torque wrench and breaker bar broke??? I have never had to use a blowtorch on the 36mm spindle nut on any of our cars. Just load it up with pb plaster and use long breaker bar. and u shouldnt be using a torque wrench as a breaker bar..

also how are the wheels spinning?? do it with the car on the ground and the spare wheel on..

 

I have all ready separated the strut and the control arm also the strut is hanging with the spindel and the control arm is separated from those two.

 

i tryed to load it bt the page was Forbidden..

 

Today i went to the Home Depot to by the gun the 1/2drive Ridgid brand producing 450ft LB tq still could not Take it off WOW I could not believe it serously this is not that tough at all but this axle nut is one tough S.O.B.
i had to consider that the gun was 250ft lb tq but no it was 450lb tq
i am shocked but i will have to buy a bigger gun maybe in the 500-600 ft lb tq guns. there going to be more expensive i bought this one for a good $179.99.
i have to get the spindel off cause it was shot bad it did not even move when the car was in drive the otherside did move the testing was done when we had the jack in center off the front bumper.

i have separted the strut from the control arm i took some nuts off and i ran out of time had go to work.

 

wait, you DO have it set to counter clockwise right? in other words towards the left

 

yes you can reverse and forward the gun

 

Did you put the wheel on and lower the car as others have suggested?

 

yea i did put the wheel back on and dropped it to the floor.
i tried with the breaker bar even the new tq wrench 250lb from home depot put up a good fight but then the gun should of done it either way

 

do you have any pictures of your car and what you've done so far, if you I suggest you post them, I just wanna make sure I'm understanding everything

 

I will put up some pic's if i don't have to work tommorrow.

 

DO NOT USE A TORQUE WRENCH

I assume you already have the right socket...

buy a standard 1/2 inch rachet from Home Depot. get the Husky brand...something like this


buy a 1/2 inch extension...about 5-6 inches long...the one in the middle..or anyone that's 6 inches or so.


buy a 1 inch (dia) steel pipe...(plumbing area)...get one that's about 4-5 feet long.
go to the plumbing section..they are usually black in color..make sure it's big enough to sleeve over your rachet handle.

lower the car back on it's wheels. assemble...the socket to the extension..extension to the rachet..and put the pipe over the handle of the rachet. put the socket over the nut and with the pipe sleeved over the rachet handle push or pull down on the rachet and it WILL come off.
if you're not that good with holding the rachet..then have a friend hold the socket/rachet to the nut while you push/pull on the end of the pipe.

trust me on this one...instead of going out and spending hundreds of dollars on impact tools that won't do squat.

i don't understand why you won't take the advice i'm giving here. the above tools would've cost you no more than 50 bucks.

 

i asked for pics in post 19 almost 2 weeks ago...nothing yet from him.

 

yea, I figured he skipped that post so I asked again. I dont know but I got a feeling after the first few posts that vgmaxman should've just taken his car to a shop

 

yup but if he's determined then he'll get there....but it's tough to find out what we're looking at w/o pics.

not everyone is a born shadytree grease monkey

 

Ok, so far from what I understood your post. You successfully removed the control arm from one side. The hub on that side is fine?

And now to the other side, you're having problem with removing the axle nut? Is this the side you're trying to install new hub you mentioned earlier?

Anyway, to use the impact wrench correctly do this.... SET REVERSE, HOLD DOWN THE TRIGGER NICE AND TIGHT, BLAST IT FOR 2 MINs. WHEN I SAID 2, I MEANT 2 MINS CONTINUOUSLY STRAIGHT. DON"T LET GO. LUBE THE NUT WITH BP BLASTER AND REPEAT. IT WILL MOVE!!! TRUST ME. YOU GOT A 375FT LBS DEWALT, THERE SHOULDN'T BE ANY EXCUSES FOR IT NOT TO!!! If you think you had more than 200ft lb on that nut, it would've been stripped already!! NO WAY!!! In another word, YOU ALREADY GOT THE RIGHT TOOL. Just be patience. Don't just rock it for a few seconds and let go. Stay and HOLD ON!!!

REMEMBER, IT WILL TAKES YOU 5-7Mins to remove that bad boy. PATIENCE dude you will get it out.!!

 

man, to be exact my impact wrench was only 225ft lbs and I was able to do it!! You just gotta be patience. Keep blasting that puppy in reverse for 2mins+++++ lube it with pb blaster and keep blasting!!!

Like these:

 

it seems like you're really stuck badly. sometimes a little frustration can create all kinds of irrational behavior (happened to me all the time, don't worry). I would advise you hook up with someone in your area for help. I wish I'm around there, I could've helped you out but I'm over 3000 miles away

anyway since you also had 4th gen, why don't you seek helps on the 4th gen forum too asking for some dudes/dudelettes to swing by to help you real quick? just offer them a box of beers or something.

I mean, it's just a stupid nut. I got them off with both cord and wireless impact wrenches. There are guys here got them off with all kinds of creative ideas, e.g. racket, pipe, breaker bar, fatso kid, etc... and they all works. I just don't understand your case... Please read my previous post carefully and try again. Patience is key!

 

dude, believe it or not i have had tried all the mention sloutions in thread like put the rachet on with the long pipe i used the jack's piping it's heavy enough so i jumped on it tell it broke by the tip then i bought the huskey brand torque wrench you all say it's not an ideal tool but it was 250lb tq it took a good beating then the other rachets did it lasted longer then others did then i went to get the gun did not work either plus the car has been down since mid OCT and i did not pay much attention as i am now plus i tried putting the tire down and all of my body into it and have serious body aches (lol). everytime i get some movement the tire on the driverside moves.

 

I had to work on this rainy day could not take some pic and everytime you guys asked for it i did not skip the pics i had to work alot and i don't i have alot of time i have to work the the night shifts and it's hard to guggle when i got lot's of stuff to do.

I have two speeds on the gun lowend gets the grip then gets jammed can't move so maybe if i try to heat it up a little then it might take it off and it should work. The high speed will just slip meaning the loud clicking noise of the gun and it is sitting completley on the thread.

I will try to post tomorrow it's going to be nice 60 degree weather.

and i will heat up and then blow it off.

 

yea i would but i don't even have the cash to do that. The towing hookup is $150.00 plus the x amonts of distance your going then the labor will crack your back then you get there the pockets will be empty.
I only have x amounts of money so i have to spend it wisely.