Hi Ben,
Be Careful with the heat.
Heating steel removes the hardness. ( softens or tempers it depending on the temp )
Really, the Easiest thing to do.
Is stop at the big Diesel Truck Stop.
Slip the guy a $20 ( a 10 spot, if ya think ya can get away with it :)
& have him break the nuts loose.
With their big Air Wrench!
( It'll do it no problem !!
spray a little WD40 on the treads,
wipe it back off, leaving a sheen of oil;
then
Re - Hand ( wrench ) tighten enough
that you feel safe getting home.

Do the bearing job
then torque the nuts back to specks.

I use a 3/4" drive breaker bar with the proper size Socket
( what is it? a 36mm? ) ( cant remember, It's been a while )

-------------- Original message --------------
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>

> A very neat little trick - and a good one.
>
> For what purpose did you need to remove the axle bolts??
>
> I sincerely hope you were not trying to remove your rear brake drums by
> that method! It is not necessary.
>
> All that is required is to remove a single small bolt in the face of the
> drum, and the drum slides off over the studs.
>
> It's good to know how to easily get the axle nut off, however.
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>
>
>
> Ben Cichowski wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> > I've read several posts on this forum and on various web pages discussing
> horror stories regarding the removal of the rear axle nut on the vanagon.
> > This nut is torqued to something like 320-360 ft pounds (gotta check the
> manual for the exact spec) and can be a bit of a bear to remove.
> > Well, I may run into problems with all the "easy" stuff, but removing this nut
> was a breeze...and this technique will work for other stuck nuts and bolts as
> well.
> >
> > WAY WAY better than any penetrant that I have ever used (PB Blaster, 3M 5-way,
> Marvel's Mystery....all garbage in comparison)
> >
> > Here you go:
> >
> > 1. Heat up the nut or bolt (don't worry, we're not looking for dissimilar
> expansion of the metal to do the work, so this will indeed work for stuck bolts,
> not just nuts)
> > 2. Take a candle and touch it to the hot threads where they interface
> > 3. Re-heat to make sure you melted the wax - it will wick into the threads
> very nicely
> > 4. If it's a nut, take it off now as it will have likely expanded because that
> is probably where you held the flame. If it's a stuck bolt, you may want to let
> it cool, depending on how you heated it as you don't want it's expansion to work
> against you.
> > 5. Put your wrench or socket on and go for it.
> >
> > Just took my axle nuts off last night with this method. I tried it without
> first just to see how bad they were....my 42" long (actually my neighbor's)
> super heavy duty 1" drive socket used for working on tractors started bowing!! -
> That nut was on there....then I tried this method....and it came off like it was
> put on by hand!
> >
> > I've heard of this method before, but never seen it posted on any of our
> "stuck bolt" discussions, and never tried it myself. Well, it sure works.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Ben
> >
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