Rear wheel hub adventures

Hello you lovely people.

Had a wealth of information off this forum, for which you are all thanked. It's helped me immensely in fixing all sorts on my 2006 TD4 Facelift, coming from pretty much zero mechanic skills.

Now the latest thing this lemon has thrown at me, is one of the rear wheel bolts decided to shear off after no doubt two decades of impact happy garages. So now I've not only moved the plan of overhauling rear brake system forwards a few months, I am also faced with the added challenge of getting the rear wheel hub off.

Some very smart engineer somewhere a long time ago decided that it would be a good idea to make it impossible to replace the studs without taking three quarters of the rear end apart, and I have nothing that could ever come remotely close to pulling the torque I need for that stake nut. However, that's for later care on reassembly I guess, and I'll have to find a way to get the thing off with sufficient amount of ugga duggas and choice words.

Getting it off is the first challenge. Without resorting to buying myself an impact wrench and all sorts of (no doubt expensive) pullers, does anyone know of some ingenious diy trick to make both the nut and the wheel hub come off? Preferably without adding 'new wheel bearing' to the adventure.

Sadly, when moving to the UK, my mechanically inclined friends with access to tools and professionally kitted out garages refused to move with me, so I'm currently trying to make things work as best as I can, but this one's a bit above my improvisation skills.

Many thanks in advance.

I had to do the front wheel hub on my FL1 and did not have the tools, the hub nut is tightened to 400NM from the factory which is ridiculous and you need to replace it after removing it, however with my lack of tools I managed to get a gear puller from my local toolstation (UK if you are in US) for £30 that removed the spline from the hub easily however my other hub was no so easy, so if you don't want to spend 200 on an impact that can do 400+ NM then I would recommend a rotary hammer, I picked up one new from Screwfix in the UK for £60 and that removed it with ease.

A few years back I had a 1.8 petrol version when it came to doing the rear bearings I used a impact socket (not sure on size) a 24inch breaker bar and scaffolding pole about 4ft long problem for you is you have removed brake shoes ect I cracked the nut with wheel still on in gear and brakes on and mate on foot brake , when the nut did crack it was like all my bones had broke at the same time , seriously it was bad never done one since

damian46 said:

A few years back I had a 1.8 petrol version when it came to doing the rear bearings I used a impact socket (not sure on size) a 24inch breaker bar and scaffolding pole about 4ft long problem for you is you have removed brake shoes ect I cracked the nut with wheel still on in gear and brakes on and mate on foot brake , when the nut did crack it was like all my bones had broke at the same time , seriously it was bad never done one since

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Can confirm when I undid mine with a 2 ft breaker bar plus 6ft of trolley jack handle the crack echoed for centuries doing it a second time will not happen...

damian46 said:

problem for you is you have removed brake shoes ect I cracked the nut with wheel still on in gear and brakes on and mate on foot brake

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This is true. However, I can always put them all back on just for the nut, or wedge a wrecking bar between the remaining studs. I'm not too fussed about demolishing the thread as I'm replacing all 5.

My biggest concern once I overcome the ungodly 400nm and that nut is off (I'm even considering just drilling it in a few places and splitting it), is taking the other thingamabob off without writing off the bearing, as I can imagine that'll be completely fused on like everything else I've touched so far.

chemmie said:

I can imagine that'll be completely fused on like everything else I've touched so far.

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Yes. It will be fused with the force of a thousand stars never had to do a bearing though always replaced it with the hub so I can't provide any advice unfortunately

Your going to need a puller for the hub unless you remove the driveshaft and gently tap it out from the backside with a drift of some sort

Gently tapping doesn't sound like something that falls inside my skillset, I'm more likely to break it.

I think I'll spend the evening convincing myself with reasons to get a stupidly powerful impact wrench and some flavour of puller.

For:
- I'll eventually have to tackle the the bearings
- It'll come in gloriously handy when doing bushes later this year
- Come on rusty bolts, try me

Against:
-

chemmie said:

Gently tapping doesn't sound like something that falls inside my skillset, I'm more likely to break it.

I think I'll spend the evening convincing myself with reasons to get a stupidly powerful impact wrench and some flavour of puller.

For:
- I'll eventually have to tackle the the bearings
- It'll come in gloriously handy when doing bushes later this year
- Come on rusty bolts, try me

Against:
-

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I've got a split outer cv boot to change on front but dreading doing it , I may just pop it to garage to crack the nut

damian46 said:

I've got a split outer cv boot to change on front but dreading doing it , I may just pop it to garage to crack the nut

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If I do end up getting an impact you're welcome to come hold it up against your nuts to crack them.

I did end up getting an impact wrench. Didn't even sniff at getting that bolt off.

The rest turned out to be not so much of a breeze, and after fighting through everything that's been marinating in rust for 20 years I've now gone from 'might as well replace my bushes while I'm at it', to 'you know what I'll just take on the whole rear suspension' with a bit of 'I'm doing preventative replacing of wheel bearings as well because no way am I doing all this again'.

Time will tell if it was a bit too impulsive of a decision, but I've got an excuse to cancel all weekend plans for the coming month

chemmie said:

I did end up getting an impact wrench. Didn't even sniff at getting that bolt off.

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I like reasons to require new tools…