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Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:22 am

luckly i broke down about 300 feet from a vw shop and he said, its simply because i didnt tighten it hard enough.. Its 300 foot pounds he said so bang it harder!

but brain cant get the axle nut off so i have to borrow a tool and hopefully make it down to his place somehow and try and get it off myself. keep you guys posted- thanks

Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:38 am

A torque meister would have been a wise purchase.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:16 am

Randy in Maine wrote: A torque meister would have been a wise purchase.

Umm Randy, unless I have been missing something, those are 36MM. How will that help him tighten his hubs?

Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:24 am

you weld on the 46mm to the torque mister, 300psi IIRC it's 253 psi at the castle nut.

brb getting my book.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:32 pm

VWDruid wrote: you weld on the 46mm to the torque mister, 300psi IIRC it's 253 psi at the castle nut.

brb getting my book.

OK. that makes sense, but Randy left out that bit in his advice to the OP.
Just having the torque mister would not help him any.

Question: would it make sense to weld on a 3/4 drive. That way you could use it for any bolt or nut?

Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:34 pm

you need a torque wrech that can be set to 253 ft lbs and the correct sized socket.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:39 pm

I am at work here doing work stuff so the answer was a bit short and devoid of all of the relevent information.

I of couse don't own one, but I was thinking that most people weld a 46mm socket to a type 1 gland nut which does fit the Torque meister.

I think it was Karl who told me to do that, but I have never had the need so far.

You need to use a 3/4" drive socket/breaker bar/toerque wrench to make that all happen correctly. Otherwise all of that stuff just bends or breaks. 253 foot pounds is serious meat.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:31 pm

YellowSplittie wrote: If you have the 46MM nuts on your axles, this will not work. The Kymco unit came with instructions on how to modify a 46MM socket to make it work. It involved cutting down the socket and welding a 36MM axle nut to the top of it.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=155573

Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:55 pm

One of those fancy gagets would sure be nice bus a simple socket and breaker arm works real nice. Stick a piece of pipe over the end to get more strength. I have a 10 foot pipe that was needed to break loose an axle nut and also a gland not. As far as the torque needed (that our OP didn't seem to care about) is no problem without a torque wrench. A little math works. Get the 126 puund girlfriend to stand on the breaker arm/pipe 24 inches out from the socket. Or you big friend 12 inches out. Bingo it's properly torqued.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:03 pm

wow guys lots info on axle nuts i guess this problem is pretty common- so brain couldnt get his axle nut off with everything he tryed but thats ok and i thank him very very much for trying. I met reinhard down at this vw shop he owns.. real nice german guy basically we found a new drum in coos bay and it should be here by tomorrow. im also putting a new axle on that side because the threads are all jacked up so its better to fix it the right way so i wont have to do this all over in another 3 months lol.. so luckily this is only costing me about 165 so not too bad and i should finally be on the road sometime soon i hope haha

Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:06 pm

Desertbusman beat me...I just use a 3/4 breaker bar,big socket,and a cheater pipe over the breaker bar...your weight, standing 12 inches out on the bar, just letting all your weight down to tighten, is about "(your weight/lbs=ft. lbs) I weigh 175, 12 inches out on breaker/cheater bar =175 ft. lbs. You just need to figure the distance on the bar to get it right, to 235 ft. lbs...been doing this for years...I think this is in the Muir book

Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:12 pm

This Brain you speak of, does he look like this guy?

No wonder he gouldn't get it off, he's a mouse! :P

For around $10 you can't beat having one of these under the seat for just such situations, savage but effective :wink:

Mon Mar 22, 2010 4:30 pm

thirteen wrote: wow guys lots info on axle nuts i guess this problem is pretty common- so brain couldnt get his axle nut off with everything he tryed but thats ok and i thank him very very much for trying. I met reinhard down at this vw shop he owns.. real nice german guy basically we found a new drum in coos bay and it should be here by tomorrow. im also putting a new axle on that side because the threads are all jacked up so its better to fix it the right way so i wont have to do this all over in another 3 months lol.. so luckily this is only costing me about 165 so not too bad and i should finally be on the road sometime soon i hope haha

That is what I did in the past. Now getting the old one off was another story. My family and I bent the 4' cheater bar jumping up and down on it in unison. I bet it took 1000 lb. of torque to get that sucker loose. It actually rolled the wheel up the block that along with the transmission and parking brake were hold the bus in place. My daughters both remember that night well and it was 20 years ago. Another example of the bus promoting family bonding.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 4:47 pm

I thought we were talking about putting it on. If so the answer is a simple socket and torque wrench.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:54 pm

Busdaddy has the right idea.. Put the nut on with it too. Then when you test drive roll down the windows and turn the stereo off and listen for that creaking sound. especially when you drive slow. If it creaks it is still too loose. Listen for that creaking when ever you stop for fuel or whatever. Listen for it for the next week.