Stuck Pinion Nut!!

[martinm13]

Hello everyone,

I've got a 67 LWB and I'm in the midst of lowering it/replacing all of the old worn out stuff. After coming out to a puddle of diff fluid on my floor one day, I discovered that the seal around the yoke in the rear end is leaking so I went about trying to replace it today. Problem is, I cannot get the nut off. I have tried an impact, let it soak in penetrating fluid, heated it up with the torch, attached a long piece of steel to the yoke via some bolts for leverage and nothing is working. When I cleaned some of the grime off, I noticed that there is a bevel at the bottom of the nut. I'm not sure this is normal as I haven't worked on C10's before this, could somebody chime in and let me know.

Here is what mine looks like:




and here is a picture I found with the nut off. Notice how the nut in the picture does not have the bevel. I am wondering if mine is somehow welded in place...




Thanks

[p3ug]

The nut on my 67 was beveled and looked just like yours. You're not suppose to reuse that nut after taking it off. The 2nd picture is most likely not the factory nut. Id try to find/borrow a larger impact or do like you had already tried. Heat, hold yoke, and give it hell with a large breaker bar. Mine was a bear to get off also.

[hamjet]

In the 2nd photo it looks like a locking tab with a piece of it bent up to stop the nut from loosening. try cleaning it better with a wire brush to see if I'm correct. you will have to flatten out the tabs around the bottom if thats what it is.. I don't see signs of heat on the nut you say you heated, you need more heat( a hotter torch) if it won't break loose after bending down the tabs. sometimes a breaker bar with a hard wack of a BFH on the bar will shock the nut enough to break it loose....

[Tx Firefighter]

They can be very stubborn. Sometimes you have to get serious with them using a big hairy nasty impact. I've had to a 3/4" impact on them before.

[cdowns]

yep large impact with the air turned all the way up

[Lattimer]

If you are using a handheld torch, try mapp gas. It will put more heat into the steel faster.

And when you heat it, heat until it glows a little, then hit it with the impact.

[cees]

torch the hell out of it and get a nice strong 1/2" or 3/4" gun and blast it

[motorcritter]

Cleaning all the rust/dirt debris will help- it allows the penetrant to get to the areas needed. And what everyone else said- flame wrench-Ford tool-monster impact-abject brutality. Worst case- chisel the nut off, it's disposable anyway.

[bigmac73]

I thought if you removed the yoke nut that would affect the pinion preload???That is the only reason i have not upgraded my yoke to a newer one yet..

[martinm13]

Originally Posted by hamjet

In the 2nd photo it looks like a locking tab with a piece of it bent up to stop the nut from loosening. try cleaning it better with a wire brush to see if I'm correct. you will have to flatten out the tabs around the bottom if thats what it is.. I don't see signs of heat on the nut you say you heated, you need more heat( a hotter torch) if it won't break loose after bending down the tabs. sometimes a breaker bar with a hard wack of a BFH on the bar will shock the nut enough to break it loose....

Yep just needed more heat, I took it to a buddies shop who has oxy acetylene and we heated it up a bit more and got it off. I thought it had been welded or had a locking tab as well but it turns out this is just how the nut looks on mine.

Originally Posted by bigmac73

I thought if you removed the yoke nut that would affect the pinion preload???That is the only reason i have not upgraded my yoke to a newer one yet..

You can remove the nut but you should mark with paint or a punch so that the nut lines up in the same spot again on the pinion. What you are really supposed to do is use an inch pounds torque wrench to set the preload with the axles out of the diff and measure how much force it takes to turn the yoke. I believe its like 20-25 inch pounds. You are supposed to use a new crush sleeve if you do this too but I just kind of did this one by feel and made sure my punch marks lined up again.