Hub stake nut

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SteveG4TRA

SteveG4TRA

Active Member
Posts
210
I guess the question is how do you get the rear hub stake nut off the half shaft to repair the hubs?
I locked the hub with a bar to the ground, knocked out the ident on the stake nut, used a breaker bar and scaffold tube, total length 3' and no luck. Does one have to heat, belt or extend the bar to 6 ' to get the nut to turn? Or does it have a left hand thread?
Anyway I got round it by taking the whole hub + half shaft assembly out of the axle to replace the O ring to try and stop oil seeping on to the disc. Whether it works or the hub will have to be replaced we wait and see.

Incidentally I changed the front axle oil and mangled the plastic level bolt. Nothing unusual there I guess. Also changed the gear box oil which was the consistency and colour of Devonshire double cream, indicative i guess of water ingress at some time. Also managed to shear of one of the disc backing plate bolts too.

Hey Ho all part of the Land Rover experience I guess
 
The nuts are normal R.H. thread and are very tight around 250 ft.lbs of torque.
When I removed mine, I used a Britool 1/2" drive heavy duty torque wrench with a quality (Britool) socket.
Three came undone but I couldn't shift the other one, luckily there is a local garage just a few yards from me and one of their guys came round with a 3/4" drive mega torque wrench and with much heaving shifted it. It was probably fitted at some time with a heavy duty impact wrench and not properly torqued up.
Firstly, get new nuts.
As you have done, open the stake with a suitable punch.
Get an assistant to apply the footbrake HARD !!
Release the nut and bin it. Do not re-use.
Regarding the broken screw, which I presume is one of the backplate or mudshield screws, either get a replacement or use Stainless Button head screws from Ebay...I think, from memory they are either M5 or M6 about 10mm long.
Do not apply heat to the halfshaft nut as it could affect the hardness of the screwed part of the CV joint and maybe melt the grease in the sealed wheel bearing and inside the CV joint itself.
Good Luck
 
Stevehh said:
I guess the question is how do you get the rear hub stake nut off the half shaft to repair the hubs?
I locked the hub with a bar to the ground, knocked out the ident on the stake nut, used a breaker bar and scaffold tube, total length 3' and no luck. Does one have to heat, belt or extend the bar to 6 ' to get the nut to turn? Or does it have a left hand thread?
Click to expand...
That is about the length at which I have to stand on, weighing 88 kgs. to get the correct torque to do it up right. So you would expect to need a longer breaker bar, applying still more torque, to undo one, especially if it is a bit rusty or summat. On the left hand side of a vehicle, even if the nuts are handed, it would still be a right hand thread as the wheel would be turning anti-clockwise as you look at it, so would automatically tighten itself up as it drives along. On cars where there are different threads like the old Morris 1000, the left hand threads would be on the offside, as are the hubs on the knock-on wire wheels on one of my cars.
Nothing wrong with smacking the breaker bar a few inches from the hub with a FO hammer, only damage you could do would be to the bar itself or possibly the nut or the socket. Better still to carefully hammer one of the 6 sides of the nut to shock the whole nut/threaded axle bit to break any seal there may be there, and to use Plusgas or summat. As you will be throwing the nut away anyway, you can destroy the dam thing, as long as you keep the thread the new one will be bolting on to intact. So saw, hammer and cold chisel, these have all been used. But the simplest is to extend the breaker bar.
 
Put the wheel back on, handbrake, chock it, and jump on your extended breaker bar. It took all of my nearly 15 stone jumping on mine to crack the nut.
Alternatively, put it in low range and 1st or reverse (depending on which side...) with the bar handle on the ground and drive it a foot or so...
 
Stanleysteamer said:
That is about the length at which I have to stand on, weighing 88 kgs. to get the correct torque to do it up right.
Click to expand...

88Kg at 3 feet? I reckon you have overtightened it , if you did tighten it like that.
upload_2019-10-6_14-38-5.png

Cheers
 
neilly said:
88Kg at 3 feet? I reckon you have overtightened it , if you did tighten it like that.
View attachment 191173
Cheers
Click to expand...
You are right, of course, or would be if I did stand on the 3 foot point.
According to my Haynes manual, 490 Nm = 362 lbs foot, which is what I worked with. Looks like Haynes got it wrong, it is in fact 361.40538, (but closer to the truth than what it says in your table either.)

I did say about the length I had to stand. which as I have just checked is, as you stated, a bit beyond what it actually was, I was writing from memory.
In fact it should have been 1.87 feet, which is 1'10.5" roughly, which is where I would have put the coloured tape on my breaker bar when I stood on it.

So yes, do the math first then stand on the breaker bar afterwards!
Closer to two feet than 3 feet!
But if you ain't got the right sort of torque wrench to hand it is better than nothing.
 
You really need a 3/4" breaker bar but if the head is suitably hardened on a 1/2" you might get away with it.

Put socket and breaker bar on nut after forcing out where it was staked with a punch.
Then use a jack to lift the breaker bar but slide some strong steel tube or box section on the handle first, not to increase the leverage but to make it more rigid and stop it going banana shaped as you jack. You shouldn't need to necessarily lift right at the full length of the bar. I have heard driving the car in low range is another option but I've never tried it and obviously the risk of damage to either the car or breaker bar is much greater.
 
I did the job by pulling the whole half shaft assembly out. The idea was to stop oil leaking, so i replaced the hub O ring. It didn't make any difference, the hub still leaks oil over the back plate, so will need to replace the hub complete at some point. i dont envisage this as a problem now, having just invested in a De Walt DCF899 impact wrench and at over 1000'/lb anti clockwise torque capability this should shift the MF hub nut
 
Stanleysteamer said:
That is about the length at which I have to stand on, weighing 88 kgs. to get the correct torque to do it up right. So you would expect to need a longer breaker bar, applying still more torque, to undo one, especially if it is a bit rusty or summat. On the left hand side of a vehicle, even if the nuts are handed, it would still be a right hand thread as the wheel would be turning anti-clockwise as you look at it, so would automatically tighten itself up as it drives along. On cars where there are different threads like the old Morris 1000, the left hand threads would be on the offside, as are the hubs on the knock-on wire wheels on one of my cars.
Nothing wrong with smacking the breaker bar a few inches from the hub with a FO hammer, only damage you could do would be to the bar itself or possibly the nut or the socket. Better still to carefully hammer one of the 6 sides of the nut to shock the whole nut/threaded axle bit to break any seal there may be there, and to use Plusgas or summat. As you will be throwing the nut away anyway, you can destroy the dam thing, as long as you keep the thread the new one will be bolting on to intact. So saw, hammer and cold chisel, these have all been used. But the simplest is to extend the breaker bar.
Click to expand...

Spread the nut flat with a cold chisel ...
 
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