axle nut vs. breaker bar + worst repair nominations

[gatesj at mailblocks.com (John Gates)]

My $0.02, others on here have far more experience than me, but I've 
been doing this for a few years...

I would NEVER put that much air to my wrench.  Most of them have a 
maximum inlet pressure of 90psi, anything more than that causes damage 
and excessive wear to the tool.  If I had a $30 Harbor Freight wrench I 
would do it but not with my $200 IR 2131A...

And from experience, if you but an impact wrench, don't even bother 
with the cheap junk, you have to buy something good or it won't be 
worth the money you spent.  If you're on a limited budget it's even 
worse, you just 100% wasted that money if you buy something cheap.  
There are a lot of things where cheap HF crap is just fine but this 
isn't one of them.  I went through several cheap wrenches that wouldn't 
even take lug nuts off without hammering and hammering.  My upper end 
IR not only takes off lugs with ease but has no problem with 173ft/lbs 
rusted axle nuts and 1 1/8" rusted to crap radius arm nuts on my old 
Ford truck.

I have to admit, I did have to hit those radius arm nuts with the 
Oxy/Acc torch just a little, but not much, not enough to melt the 
rubber bushings.  Just a little heat applied properly (quickly to the 
larger surrounding part, the nut in this case) is your friend.

Buy 3/8" ID hose at least also so your tools can get plenty of volume.  
And set your regulator to 90psi with the tool RUNNING.  These both make 
a huge difference.

It's not so much the air pressure as the quality of the wrench and the 
size of the line.

John Gates
--
'85 Scirocco, Flash Silver
'97 Jetta GLX, Sequoia Green

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Ruffi <sciroccos@earthlink.net>
To: C Boyko <roccit_53@scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca>; Derrick floyd 
<tyrone27@gmail.com>
Cc: scirocco list <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>; Foxx 
<foxxinabox@wideopenwest.com>
Sent: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 20:20:45 -0400
Subject: RE: axle nut vs. breaker bar + worst repair nominations

>> On Apr 10, 2005 10:19 PM, Mark F. <mk1mark@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Apr 10, 2005 10:18 PM, Foxx (in a box) 
<foxxinabox@wideopenwest.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >  the axle nut refuses to budge....
>>>
>>> >  so, any ideas on breaking the
>>> > damn nut loose?

I just checked this thread out, so I'm sorry if this answer is 
redundant:

About 175 psi in your air compressor and a 1/2" (good quality) air gun 
with
an impact socket is the only way to go.  The impact form the air gun 
almost
always works and you're less likely to break something on the car or
yourself.



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