I've been trying to get my rear axle hubs off for a while and tried a socket, combination wrench, beating on them with a bbmfh (big bad muther f'n hammer), penetrating oil, even a new product that freezes the nut to break the interference on the threads-all to no avail. I was thinking about how the VW guys do it and remembered I had a VW specific slugging wrench in my garage. What are the odds it would fit? I figured it would NOT fit and I would have to make my own but amazingly it fit perfect. It still took a bunch of really hard smacks with the bbmfh to loosen those nuts but they came off. Here's a pic of the tool from jbugs.com they sell for $8.

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/1936/5748rz1.th.jpg (http://img360.imageshack.us/my.php?image=5748rz1.jpg)


Now I can get on with my rear disk brake upgrade. Anyone need a set of complete rear drum brakes? The shoes and wheel cylinders are still good, just bolt them on and go.

ken

do you think it would work for an E30? my brother has one with a bearing starting to go bad and the next step for that nut is a smoke wrench

If it's not recessed on the e30 it should work. 36mm is very popular on bimmers, I use my socket all the time. (has to be ground down to do an e30 front bearing) Ken, throw those brake parts (backing plates too) up on 2002faq.com, those guys are always looking for them. Might be worth more than you think.

Do you think and impact wrench would have worked fine with a little PB blaster? Or might that screw up the threads?

I forgot to mention I tried a 1/2 drive electric impact wrench as well as a hammer type impact driver. These nuts were REALLY on there.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try the 2002 guys.

ken

Do you think and impact wrench would have worked fine with a little PB blaster? Or might that screw up the threads?

ahhaha last try at my brothers car ended with him standing on a three foot cheater while i tapped on the long socket and held it on the nut after heating the nut. i am gonna need on for my 320i soon anyway.

FWIW, I can actually get more torque out of my 24" long, 1/2" drive breaker bar manually than I can with my pnumatic impact wrench & the regulator set to 140psi (in emergency situations only of course) and if I need to, I can take the handle off of my floor jack & slide it over the end of my breaker bar. Granted, not all air tools are created the same in this regard & for that matter their rated torque values don't seem to mean squat... but I've got two different impact wrench drivers, & I'm comparing the better of the two. Maybe I need to buy a $500 Snap-On or something...

i work on trucks and plant equipment all the time, those nuts are nothing :stickoutt
still a PITA, i hate having to air chisel stuff off :(

I use 1/2 " drive socket w/breaker bar and a 6ft long pipe. Leverage is the key. Been using this method for years on 356 Porsche and VW's. A little PB Blaster helps too. At 200 lbs. my fat ass exerts a lot of force on the end of that bar. Not very sophisticated but it does work.

why is this tool better than a 1/2" drive 36mm socket with a BFbreaker bar? Is it designed to be hit with a sledge or something?

With a 2' breaker bar, if you weigh 200 lbs you can exert 400 ft-lbs of torque. With a 6 ft bar you can exert up to 1200 ft-lbs of torque. No air tools will even come close to that.

i have to use slug wrenches in the oil field quite a lot when working on pump or other equipment that kind of grows together. the amount of torque you receive from cheaters is nothing compared to the jarring effect that a slug wrench has. it is the initial breaking of the nut that is the problem, not how much torque it takes to turn it. (all of us that have come away with bloddy knucles as a result of a nut breaking know this lol) pb blaster is a tremendous help but takes a long time and a ton of applications. i deal with threaded pump caps as big as 4 inches wide and a slug wrench trumps a six foot cheater every time, but i only weigh 128 pounds sopping wet lol.

I don't have a 1/2 breaker than will take the full amount of force I can put on it without snapping. I'm sure a snap-on would but I can't afford those. Johan is right, the jarring effect of a big hammer momentarily exerts 1000's of ft.lbs and is more effective at breaking a rust seal than any amount of steady torque. That said, there should be nothing on a bimmer that regularly requires that amount of force. I also wouldn't use that to install anything, due to the highly unpredictable amount of torque.

i have broken so many 1/2 breaker bars on vw crank shaft nuts.

what is a slug wrench? i understand the hit it and it turns or something but what does it look like? as you can tell, you don't use those in aviation

Umm...hello, there's a picture of it in the original post.

I also wouldn't use that to install anything, due to the highly unpredictable amount of torque.holy shit i bet you could get over 10k lbs. of torque easy on a fine thread bolt. THAT would be a very bad idea lol