Classic Car Developments - Driveshaft Hub Nut Removal

[iani]

A friend has fitted the CCD driveshafts to his Stag, unfortunately one of the CV joint gaiters needs to be replaced and he is struggling to undo the driveshaft hub nut, any tips?

 

[RogerH]

Hi Ian,

looking at the pictures I would suggest contacting CCD as they appear to be inserted from the centre.

 

http://www.classicdrivingdevelopment.co.uk/gal.asp?gID=30

 

 

Roger

[kob666e]

With hud still on the car and with the wheel on the ground use a 3/4 drive socket, with breaker bar, and stand on it, or if that fails use a pipe over it for extra leverage.

 

The nuts are tightened to over 200 ft/lbs. (they'd want to be )

[iani]

He fitted the kit himself Roger, including tightening up this nut, removal should simply be a reversal, it's just proving incredibly difficult.

[iani]

With hud still on the car and with the wheel on the ground use a 3/4 drive socket, with breaker bar, and stand on it, or if that fails use a pipe over it for extra leverage.

 

The nuts are tightened to over 200 ft/lbs. (they'd want to be )

He's on the hunt for some scaffolding pole, the breaker bar hasn't worked so far.

[RogerH]

Blimey - 200lbs.ft. That is some load.

 

Roger

[tim hunt]

Yes the hub nuts heed a fair bit of welly Roger but as per Alastair's fitting instructions they should be torqued to 215 lbs ft. I borrowed a torque wrench to fit mine but did shell out for a 32mm socket.

 

Tim

[bob-menhennett]

Sounds like the rear nuts on Volkswagen Beetles. We , No 1 son & I , had to use the scaffolding tube on a 3/4" drive socket and the boiling water trick , ( poured over the hub nut to expand it ).

Bob

[tim hunt]

Good shout Bob, boiling water has got me out of trouble on several jobs over the years.

 

Tm

[Steves_TR6]

Mine came off fairly easily with an impact wrench, when i too gad to renew the gaitors.

 

Steve

[ChrisR-4A]

Take the socket down to your local tyre fitters and get them to slacken the nut using one of their air impact wrenches. It's ok to drive a short distance with a lower torque.

That's how I tightened mine up, got to about 150 lbs ft and drove down road to garage with much bigger torque wrench than mine. Carry socket in boot just in case.

Chris

[TriumphV8]

I have an 3/4 air impact wrench for that purpose.

The special wrench nut is turned down on the lathe

to fit into that small hole in the hub.

 

If you do not have that fit the wheel, remove the center or center nut

of wire wheel to get access, take a 3/4" wrench with a 2m long extension.

 

Let engine idle that brake booster works and let a second person press the brakes

and than open the nut.

 

Be sure that refitting provides the required 290Nm torque

otherwise the wheel bearing might fail.

 

It is all VW parts, bearing and cv joint if something should be damaged.

[Motorsport Mickey]

How many of us have spent more than £80 on the TR in the last 12 months ?

 

Alloy sump £400, Alloy rocker cover £110, Roller Rockers £200, Weber Carbs £240, Woolen carpet set £240, Releathered front seats £400, Minilight wheels £1000 and the list carries on. Can we really not afford to buy this ?

http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/tools/spanners-wrenches/halfords-advanced-torque-wrench-model-300

 

The bloody Torque wrench is £79 pounds...£79 pounds and it's yours in perpetuity, calibrated from new, it's not as if the wrench is stupidly big and cannot be used on the rest of the TR, it's operating range will cover at least 90% of the torques required in TR use.

I've got 3 Torque wrenches a small Snap On pull stick and winder bought second hand that only runs from 1 lb to 50 lb ft, a very nice Knorr bar unit which stretches from 20-150 lb ft and this "Big Dawg" wrench which gets me up to the 220 lb ft range. Now the "Big Dawg" is nearly 3" longer than the nice Knor Bar unit and as such it's my weapon of choice for all gruntmaster 105 lb ft (recognise that number) and upwards big torques, cos it's controllable, no more blue veins standing out from my arms and purple faces whilst trying to pull the bigger numbers.

Now cos I'm finicky I REGULARLY check the torques with my Akratorque L3 gauge (secondhand from Anchor supplies, Ex WD equipment, cost £30, new over £1k), they come in a variety of sizes and given this model covers up to 400lb ft anything over that is "pass me a longer scaffolding tube range".They are very nearly bombproof, other than dousing it in petrol and firing it or driving over it they work on a contained beam principle (same as the old Torque wrenches our cars were originally built with) which you really have to try and break not to get accurate numbers from it.

 

 

AAahhh I hear you ask, how do you know it's calibrated ? well it's Ex Army is one way to confirm it, they are in use up to the date of sale, and then I always cross check against my existing torque wrenches and given I can get 3 readings at 50 lb ft from the 3 wrenches and then 2 readings at up to 150 lb ft from the bigger wrenches, the wrenches agree within 2lb ft at 150 lb ft and 1 lb ft at 80lb ft and if that isn't close enough for Rolls Royce, BAE or other exotic institutions well it's good for me !

We need to think priorities here guys, alloy wheels and leather seats don't keep you on the road.

 

Mick Richards

Edited March 30, 2018 by Motorsport Mickey

[TriumphV8]

As I expect the next question let me tell for separation

of the outer joint from the shaft it needs a puller that

takes some force until the joints pops out.

 

The inner joint has a ring that can be accessed from the diff side

and can be removed with a (Sprengringzange)

[Alec Pringle]

Hi Mick,

 

old story I'm afraid, tools lack the bling factor, except for fancy cabinets . . . . . folks will pay loadsamoney for the shiny roll cabs and boxes, and then fill them with budget tools which will never do a proper job.

 

I prefer to spend the money on decent tools, and they live in old steel and wood drawers recycled from office or hospital cast-offs - cheap storage, even if it is totally lacking in bling factor !

 

Same goes for manuals and parts books . . . . . . why on earth start working on the car without all the relevant data to hand ? That suggests the factory workshop manual and parts book for starters, the Haynes manual as an occasionally useful supplement, and one or both of the Williams' books for the relevant model, not to mention the Moss printed catalogue of course . . . . and the other proprietary manuals of the 60s and 70s don't go amiss either, if you can find them, an alternative viewpoint often helps clear uncertainty.

 

A couple of hundred quid spent on all the decent books is a damn sight better investment than a £200 top box . . . . .

 

Incidentally, my £30 LIDL 240v impact driver goes to 250lbs and is a darn sight kinder easing off a high torque than a ruddy great scaffold pole with a rock ape bouncing on the other end . . . . . . .

 

Cheers

 

Alec

[Waldi]

I have tested impact guns (el cheapo), 2 air driven, one electric, 220V, the electric (Silverline is the make, I think 60 euros) was far superiour.

Like Alec says, I would use that instead of long poles.

An alternative if you dont have an inpact gun is to pull on a T-bar with 2 persons on both ends, so pure torque is applied, which is more effective.

Best done with 3/4 sockets.

Waldi

[Eddie Cairns]

I noticed in Lidl this week the mains impact wrench with four sockets. Around £30 and wondered how good it would be.

 

I have one of the ALDI compressed air impact wrenches and a large compressor with 10mm ID hose and it does say 110NM on a good day well less than advised on the box, that is no matter where you have the regulator on the wrench at 1, 2, 3 or 4.

 

The compressor is set to 6.5bar as advised on the impact wrench box.

 

The mains ones on Lidl now early April 2018 are advising 320NM to loosen and someone on another forum has bought one and is getting nuts released that other cheap impact wrenches will not look at.

 

Looks a cheap tool that is worth a punt.

Edited April 13, 2018 by Eddie Cairns

[Motorsport Mickey]

No air compressor needed, no charging up for hands free impact wrench's which are always out of battery when you need them, mains electric...plug and play.

 

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cew1000-electric-impact-wrench/

 

450NM of torque, make sure you use both hands when triggering...and it's £72 inc VAT from Machine Mart, ...it will undo whatever you want undoing.

 

I've got a mate who's firm does large amounts of fabrication, they have these left plugged in for when a hands free impact wrench goes weak at the knees, it's cheap and they rate them highly with the large torque output.

 

Mick Richards

Edited April 13, 2018 by Motorsport Mickey

[iani]

My mate has tried using a Bosch impact driver but it just wasn’t up to the job. I haven’t had an update recently but I have sent him the link Mick posted above to the Machine Mart model, looks good at that price.

[PodOne]

Agree the best thing you can buy for your car is a good tool kit, books and decent trolly jacks/ramps before you even buy the car you desire. It make the hardest of jobs much easier and is more likley to see the job finished faster without collateral damage when nuts start to round off and save you money.

 

Buy the best you can afford Halfords professional range is great value with a life time warranty and have yet to let me down and I have had lots over the years including a baby, middle and big daddy torque wrenches, 240v is better if its to see occassional use as batteries like to be used or they just pack up and are often more expensive to replace that the tool; crazy but true.

 

Off topic so I'll shut up now but ditch the scaffold tube!

[Steves_TR6]

My mate has tried using a Bosch impact driver but it just wasn’t up to the job. I haven’t had an update recently but I have sent him the link Mick posted above to the Machine Mart model, looks good at that price.

I used the machine mart 240v impact wrench to undo my CDD ‘big nut’ at the weekend, made light of the task.

 

Now i need a BIG torque wrench to tighten it after replacing the gaiter clamp.

 

One difficulty with this job, removing the shaft, is that the studs for connecting to the diff are a little too long.

 

Trimming them down by 1/4” makes removal and reassembly WAY easier!

 

Also a Ratcheting Open Ended spanner, eg Sata Gearwrench, makes undoing the fiddly nuts much easier.

 

Steve

[iani]

Machine Mart impact driver used today, nut came straight off, thanks for the tip.