Very stubborn front axle nut

Hi all,


Short time reader, first time poster.


I recently purchased a '99 XJ from an old friend of mine who's in declining health and wasn't using it. The jeep is in pretty good shape for 21 years old and 135k miles. Now my friend and I are both pretty much geezers, so it's not been wheeled hard. Unfortunately, He did like to drive it on the nearby-to-him Pismo Dunes. No body rust that I've seen so far, but fasteners don't look like they spent their entire lives in the desert.


I've done a couple trips up in the Sierras with it, and it's developed a clunk. It sounds like it's right under my feet. It doesn't take noticeable body movement for the clunk to occur.



I've peeked here for guidance, and have made sure that every bit of the front suspension is torqued. Both ends of upper and lower control arms. Track bar ends and track bar mount. Thought it might have been the ARB compressor, as it was not mounted securely, but that wasn't it. Transmission/T-case/engine appear to be well mounted. Skid pans are tight.



Next item, figuring it can't hurt, is to go ahead and replace the ball joints as according to buddy, they're originals. Only I'm stuck practically at the beginning, attempting to remove the axle nut.



Now, I may be old, but I can still deadlift 305, but even with about 5' worth of breaker bar and cheater, I still can't loosen the nut. I'm pulling at least 150 pounds before the cheater gets waist high. That's at least 750 ft*lbs of torque.


Stood on 4' of cheater (I'm 200 pounds) and bounced. Still not budging.



I've gone as far as using the floor jack under the breaker bar, lifting the handle about as much as I feel safe doing without permanently deforming the bar or shearing the pin. What happens is that there's enough weight removed from the tire that the wheel starts rotating even in 4wd with other tire also still on the ground. The jack eventually runs out of lift.




I don't have an impact wrench, but am now tempted to spend the coin Only I have serious doubts about whether or not a Milwaukee 3/4" cordless could bust it loose. Does it really have 1500 ft*lbs of loosening torque?



I don't want to use heat on these parts if at all possible. Maybe I'm being too cautious about this?



Am now soaking in Liquid Wrench, and am looking at 1" and 3/4" breaker bar options on Amazon.


Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.


Scott

You need to get or make one of these.

Penetrating oil, time, heat, etc. I would cook it without even a second thought, but I’m not exactly cautious by nature. I can’t speak on the Milwaukee, but if anything could break it loose, that’s probably it.

If you’re just trying to get at the ball joints, you can always pull the hub/bearing assembly and axle shaft together without removing the axle nut. Removing the three 12-point bolts on the steering knuckle will allow you to do so.

RCP Phx said:

You need to get or make one of these.

Click to expand...

Would you have a source? I don't have the tools to make one at the present time. Looking at it, I'm guessing that's 4130 that the socket is welded to. I'd think mild steel would be beat up a whole lot more from the hammer blows.



I'm assuming that usage would be to affix teenage son to end of 5' of cheater, then vigorously apply BFH?

On the clunk, check the transmission mount. Motor mounts too. A clunk on takeoff is often the slip yoke at the back of the xfer case needing greased.

lawsoncl said:

On the clunk, check the transmission mount. Motor mounts too. A clunk on takeoff is often the slip yoke at the back of the xfer case needing greased.

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Thanks. I have done all the drive train checks, and while I noted a hint of slop in the slip yoke to the rear diff, this particular clunk can occur at any time, not just at takeoff.

FWIW - I found striking/slugging wrenches. Including the Wright Tool 19-36mm. I bet the 12 point wrench can take the beating, but can the nut?

About the clunk.... Have someone turn the wheel back and forth while parked. I just found a clunk in a customer's Jeep he stated was from his feet. It was the ball joint on the factory track bar. Easy to find with someone tithing the wheel for you.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I had one of those axle nuts. A previous owner or mechanic seemed to have lost the cotter pin and retaining sheet metal nut and decided that the solution to that was to just torque the living daylights out of the nut. I broke a 1/2" breaker bar on it (sheared off the square drive). Bought a 4' long 3/4" breaker bar and added a cheater onto that. That did the job.

The idea of pulling the entire hub is another way to skin this particular cat. You will need to soak those three bolts pretty well with penetrating oil. A wire brush on any exposed threads on the back side might be good too. And note that there is a way to get that hub unit to break loose from the knuckle by using the power steering. Probably best to look for that on youtube--much more easily shown there than explained here. But if you have some fastener rust, odds are good you will have a bit of work getting that hub to come out.

When it comes to reassembly apply some anti-seize on threads and on the mating surfaces of that hub.

I made mine and it's just mild steel, the only ones I've ever seen for sale are this type.
https://www.kartek.com/parts/36mm-rear-vw-axle-nut-striking-wrench-wacker-tool-with-12-drive-for-breaker-bar.html

In road salt territory, penetrating oil, twice a day for a week does the job. I would go really light on applying heat to a Dana 30 unitized hub bearing.

Impact is the easy button.

When eflores had an emergency repair, we backed his XJ onto the H.F. 25" breaker bar, twice. It was scary, we bent the bar, but it worked.

Edit to add, look at replacing more than ball joints while you have it apart.

Tim_MN said:

In road salt territory, penetrating oil, twice a day for a week does the job. I would go really light on applying heat to a Dana 30 unitized hub bearing.

Click to expand...

might I ask why? i dont think hes cooking anything past what heavy braking would do. 400F propane ide think safe



to the o.p. I would either drown that booger in atf/acetone or set a torch to the nut for a bit then hit it with a big old impact. one way or another its coming off lol

4x4JeePmaNthINg said:

might I ask why? i dont think hes cooking anything past what heavy braking would do. 400F propane ide think safe



to the o.p. I would either drown that booger in atf/acetone or set a torch to the nut for a bit then hit it with a big old impact. one way or another its coming off lol

Click to expand...

I'm reticent just because I don't know at what temperature the axle was quenched. Get a hot spot, and there goes the temper at that point. I'm sure it's not the greatest steel, and not tempered at something ridiculous like only 400 degrees, but better safe than sorry.

The Williams slugging/flogging/striking wrench arrived today. Unfortunately my hope that it would work with wheel/tire mounted didn't work out. No matter - within half an hour of arrival, tires were off on both sides and axle nuts were loose
Here's the exact item I purchased, for those looking at this in the future:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DO0ZAM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I chose American made over foreign, as I just didn't want failure to be an option. It fit perfectly into the hub and over the nut without my having to grind any relief on the wrench.

I think RCP Phoenix's wrench is likely an even better option, as you can both torque and strike simultaneously, but it just took 3-4 whacks and it was off.
Of course when all was said and done, the axles did not separate from the hubs, and my puller is too small. I'll separate them and then anti-sieze them prior to reassembly.

Everything else came out easy-peasy, including the unit hubs. A few gentle taps of the hammer on a 13mm socket on each side of the hub and they loosened up nicely.

In fact, every thing so far besides the axle nuts has been cake.

Of course, by putting that out there, I've now f-----d myself, as only the driver's side ball joints are out. They're not splined, so I've ordered Spicers that will arrive on Saturday. I refrained from ordering them earlier, just in case someone had indeed replaced the originals with splined units somewhere along the line.

P.S. I used the "socket under the U-joint ear" trick to keep the hub from rotating while striking the wrench. Worked a treat.

A $40 harbor freight electric impact solved this problem for me years ago.

But if you want the Milwaukee, good excuse to get it!