QUESTION:

1. Re the big 36mm nuts on the ends of the axles/hubs: my driver's side one came off without too much effort (we had to have the car on and one person stomping on the brakes while the other used a long breaker bar to loosen) but the passenger side one won't budge. We have now broken both a 1/2" drive breaker bar (not Craftsman but fairly strong looking) and a Craftsman 1/2" drive socket wrench with a jack pipe placed on it to function as a breaker bar. The nut is ON TIGHT. We are going to borrow a buddy's 1" drive tools, but I'm a little concerned that with 3' of leverage I'm gonna be putting undue stress on the hub or axle or car in general. I was thinking air tools would be the way to go but I'm not sure anyone I know has air tools that can handle well over 200 ft-lbs of torque. The factory spec is up to 231 ft-lbs but I think the Nissan tech who replaced my axle seals put the passenger side nut on far tighter than that. Any advice? Thanks in advance!

TIPS:

1. Do not try to remove the ABS sensors from the spindle. All you have to do is undo the clips in the engine bay (one for each side), take out the brackets that hold the ABS lines in the wheel well, and pull the line, clip and all, through the hole in the wheel well. I tried to remove the ABS sensor by removing the bolt but the bolt sheared off thanks to all the rust. Then I tried to pry off the little metal bracket around the sensor but it snapped. That sensor is stuck there. I don't believe I damaged the sensor but I wish I hadn't broken the bracket.

2. Do not bother removing the big iron spindle/knuckle from the control arm once you have it off the car. We used a bearing puller (I think that's what it's called; what I mean is the two-pronged fork thingies) but it wasn't coming off so we gave up. Unfortunately, the bearing puller punctured the ball-joint seal so I'm going to have to get a new one of those eventually.

I know Nissan doesn't sell replacement ball joints, just the whole control arm, but does anyone have a source for an aftermarket ball joint? Anyone know how long I can drive with a hole in the seal before I start to see problems? I'm very low on money right now.

3. Do not try to hacksaw/chisel out the round metal sleeve after you burn out the smaller of the two stock bushings. Huge waste of time and effort. All you have to do is take a socket that is about the right size (probably 26mm or the equivalent standard, I don't remember what size standard would fit, just test and see), hold it in place, and whack it with a hammer. The sleeve comes out easily in seconds.

 

instead of going through all that trouble u could have just gotten a LCA off ebay for 70 bux each. thats what i did and i replaced them this weekend took about an hour and a half total.

 

That would not have saved me any trouble and would have cost me $70. I still would have had to take off the old LCA and burn out the bushings on the eBay LCA to install the Energy Suspension bushings, then install it on the car. My LCA is rusty but fine, I'm hoping I can get a new balljoint and/or ball joint seal installed for less than that.

 

http://www.suspension.com/nissancars.htm

They sell ball joints, and just about any local place will have them or be able to order them.

 

Instead of burning out the bushing, could you have just used the socket and pushed out the big lca bushing intact??

 

Yep, that's what I'm doing for the second small bushing. I don't think it will work for the big U-shaped bushing since it can't be pushed out, it has to be pulled out.