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I poked the lock nut on the wheel hub so its not indented and bought a nice 1-1/4 ratchet bit with 1/2 - 3/8 ratchet adapter and attempted to take off the hub bolt. broke ratchet 1. went to home depot bought a huskey 1/2 inch ratchet and used a big *** pole on the end broke ratchet 2. now i have a 1/2 inch ratchet thing thats 2 feet long and no ratcheting action. it didnt break but the bolt isnt turning. umm any ideas. lol. im thinking torch to heat up the nut and try to get it off???? any suggestions and please dont ask why i want to take it off.the engine is coming out. and being replaced with something bigger :p

oh and im hoping i dont have to break anything lol

I used a 1/2 inch-drive Snap-On 2-1/2 foot long breaker bar, and I had to STAND on it. I weigh 205 lbs. Thats a lot of freakin torque to break a nut.....

If you do something similar, have someone in the driver seat with their foot firmly on the brake pedal, so that you dont risk damage to the tranny and axles applying all that torque.

how bout blocks in front and behind the tires with the car in neutral... theres that hole in the mag to get the wrench in. i had the car up with wheels off. but the car started to move with the torque so it went back down and tires on till i get the driveshafts off. yeah i did the same.. im gonna get some pipe and extend the wrench

try air tools. an impact wrench is a tool everyone should have haha.

dont have the cash nor space for a pro garage.. or else it would just be at a mechanic...

I had the exact same problem, and I also broke a rachet. I gave up and took the struts out. The shafts came out of the tranny just fine, and everything went back in just fine too.

NOTE: get an alignment after doing this.

find your closest rent a tool.....impact was the only way i got mine off. that was the only way mine moved. and 80$ lost in broken breaker bars and sockets sucks bawls.

yeah, find youself an electric impact wrench (unless you happen to already have a decent air pump) and go to town, it'd be much better then trying to use breaker bars and cheater bars.

unless you can get access to air tools, the breaker bar is the best bet. Ratchets will always break! Get a decent 1/2" drive breaker bar and put a huge pipe on it. Do not heat the nut, you'll probably melt the vinly seals inside the wheel bearing.

A fuel/Oxy torch would help but even if you only had a propane torch get it as hot as possible then spray it with Break-Free and tap the side of the nut with a hammer a couple of time to get it wick into the threads than spray more Break Free on it. Wait a few minutes and the nut should take a lot less force to break loose.

Originally posted by johnboi85:
try air tools. an impact wrench is a tool everyone should have haha.

Actually an electric impact delivers more torque than the average 1/2" drive Air impact. I have a couple top of the line Ingersoll-Rand 1/2" air impact and my Dewalt electric impact will often break loose nuts & bolts the air impact won't. In some cases my Dewalt can out perform my 3/4" drive air impact unless I have access to a 5/8" ID air line. I had to warn the girl in the apt. below me that is the ceiling above her kitchen starts to creak and pop, run it's probably my tool collection in the walk in closet going through the floor.