So I was trying to do the GMC W/C swap last weekend. Got the driver's side on fine. But on the pax side one of the nuts would not come off. So I got a bigger breaker bar, still would not budge. So I fired up the compressor, and tried it with my Ingersol Rand 1/2" impact gun. Nada. Infact the gun only made it worse because it rounded off the nut.

#%!@#

So I then decided that I would have to just chisel away the nut. Problem is that the nuts are conical, so there is going to be still nut below where I can get the chisel down to. So now I'm thinking that my last alternative is to take out the axle, with the wheeland drum attached, and drill out the stub from the back getting rid of the shoulder of the stud, and then get the air hammer and punh out the remains. I don't remember from when I was doing the driver's side, but the axles are c-cliped, right? Please tell me they are...

 

yes, axles are just c clip'ed.
other ideas...
have you got access to a cutting torch. just cut the sucker off.
drill the stud from the outside ?

 

I was thinking about torch-cutting, but I'm afraid I'd end up damaging the much softer aluminum wheels in the process. As far as drilling from outside, the stud is about 2" long. That's a lot of drilling...

 

yeah the heat might be bad.
another idea..
have you got an air comp and cutoff wheel. it would take a few wheels, but it would slice it off close to the wheel.

 

I wish I could use a cut-off wheel. But the holes in the wheels are barely big enought to fit the socket it. This is bout the only time I wish I had steel wheels

 

Stupid truck of awesomeness is fixed. So what I ended up doing was taking the whole axle out, with the drum and wheel still attached. No simple task. Because the drum was still on the axle, I couldn't slide it in all the way to get the c-clip out. So I had to pry the clutches down on the side spider gears to just barely make room to get the clip out. I needed less than 1/2mm.. So that took awile because you don't have that much leverage while laying on your back.

So once I got the axle out, I ended up grinding away the head of the stud, then press it through the axle flange. Of course the shoulder was too big to go through the hole in the wheel, so more grinding...

Pain in the ***...


ah, who am I kidding, I enjoyed it

 

axle and c-clip go back in ok ?

 

yep. went back together just fine.