When I've removed the hubs on my '81 I've always removed the caliper,
held on by two big nuts (19mm?) torqued up pretty high (93 ft/lbs?).  But
you can get to these two nuts in a pretty straight-forward fashion.  I've
used a water pipe over the handle of my 1/2" drive rachet to get the
leverage I've needed.

I seem to recall that the manual suggests you can do this without
disconnecting the brake line, though I've never accomplished that.

On Wed, 22 Jul 1998, Ian Cameron wrote:

> I have to pack the front wheel bearings in my 82 Westy.  Haynes says
> blithely "Undo the large nut that joins the upper control arm to the
> steering knuckle and remove the flexible brake line."
> I have three questions. First, what idiot decided that in order to pack
> wheel bearings (every 20,000 miles) it would be necessary to remove a great
> big nut, torqued to 100 foot pounds or more, in an awkward place?
> Second, having made that decision, why did he (or they - this looks like a
> committee decision to me) design it so that you couldn't get a socket on
> it?  And how do you torque it without using a socket?
> And third, how the hell DO you get that nut off?  Box end spanner and a
> looooong cheater?  Or do I hire Arnold Swartzenegger?  I sure can't make it
> turn.
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young               young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA  94549    '81 Vanagon
---------------------------------------------------------------------