Is there anyone around who can get this s**t off my truck? The front U-Joints are completely shot and i cant get the hub nuts off, broke 2 breakers, ruined an impact, and used heat. I almost need a socket welded to some heavy rod or something..... and I cant get in to change my plugs, not sure what socket it needs to be, maby some sort of thin walled plug socket? No clue. I can be reached by email easiest, or on here, but email is prescottcory@yahoo.com, messenger is prescottcory. Any help i can get would be greatly appreciated!

 

Wow, I've not heard of the hub nut being that hard to get off. I'd assume you used penetrating oil. You must have some serious rust on them.

Yep, it's a regular plug socket.

 

for the heat shields, you can clamp on them with pliers and try to wiggle them out or ive heard you can put a hose clamp on and tighten it down and theyll slip right out

 

Tried Deep Creep, penetro, wd40, on both the plug shields and hub nuts. I stripped out a few hose clamps and they are actually still on there. Ive beat on em, sprayed em, havent put heat to em yet tho. They are aluminum, in steel, silly idea. I had the hub nut glowing bright red, still couldnt get it off. That was the front left hub nut. I figured fack it after that and not bother with the other one till i can get that one off. What size is the socket? Engine is a 5.9 360. Oh yeah, one more thing. Screw royal purple. Use Schaeffers. They have everything you need, and its cheaper!!Tata!!

 

bump...

 

1 11/16" for the socket size .

 

you said it was the left nut, it just may be a left hand thread, mine was, i found out the hard way

 

I had the same problem,
Passenger side hub nut would not come off.
So I left the shaft on the hub and changed the U-joint.
You can also try heat and beeswax, sometimes works when penentrants don't.

 

what size impact wrench did you use ? you might try going to a tire shop or truck repair where they have a 1" impact, and turn that loose on it. once it breaks it loose, then grease it, re-snug, and drive home.

for the heat shields, i used a little plug socket with a rubber insert. once the plugs were out, i removed the shields with pliers. you may need an air chisel to cut/deform them out of the manifold pockets.

 

I was going to mention that possiblity, if you want to just get u-joints replaced, just remove the entire wheel bearing with the shaft atached to it. But, your best bet is to suck it up and get the nut removed (it will only get harder next time you try).

Like stated before though, a big impact with lots of PSI should do the trick fairly easily.

By the sounds of it, your truck is quite corroded to say the least. I think your next problem (once you get the nut of the axle shaft) will be removing the wheel bearing from the spindle. Thats usually a doozie too