Great job man! Sounds like a great discovery of mechanics for you.
Making do with the available tools is a fine art and great teacher.

I have a few 2 to 6 foot poles of varying diameter to fit over my socket
wrench, breaker bar, big old plumbing type wrench (when you don't have
the right big socket and the axle has to come off and you have a six
foot pipe, it comes off with minimal damage to the nut(a few teeth
marks)), also to fit some common 10, 13, 17, 19, 22 open and closed hand
wrenchs.  Amazing power, enough to shear bolts off, so always do some
form of heat, oil, vibration before hand when possible.  Go slow,
stubborn nuts will generate binding heat that increases their resistance
to removal, use oil to cool and get drawn into threads.  Waiting is
waiting, so taking a break is often the best way to let nature take its
course, then often presto! it pops right off.  Leverage, yeah!

Save your old bearings, grind enough off of the edges and you have an
installation tool.  Eventually, I got a 22-42mm socket set and you can
dial in a driver to fit most needs with them. Yep, making a housing for
the wheel, prayer as we drive the bearing in straight, straight,
straight...Stop it, I'm getting flashbacks!!

Peace, Erik

"Robert S. Williams, MD (laptop)" wrote:
>
> I just got done rebuilding my right rear axle on my 1982 Aircooled Westie.