Disaster trying to get drive shaft nut off

I'm trying to get the nut off to replace the carrier bearing.

First, I shattered the first screwdriver handle hammering on it, bent up the second screwdriver's weak steel when trying to pry the stake out, and then broke the tip off the third brittle screwdriver inside of the stake. See pic. It's stuck in there and I'm out of screwdrivers that fit. I don't think I pulled out the stake enough, so I don't know what to do other than buy more screwdrivers and try to hammer them in there if possible to create more space, hope the new screwdrivers have better steel, and hope the other piece falls out instead of preventing the nut from coming off.

Second, I can't get enough leverage to turn the nut with the breaker bar. I bought a vise, but I don't have the vise screwed down onto the 2x6 board because I don't have any such screws, and without doing that I have no leverage. I don't have a work bench to install it on. I think I need lag screws?

Third, I tightened the vise hard, but the shaft was still slipping and scratching off the paint badly over the whole area. It looks like it's been through hell. I put a towel around it to stop the scratching, but it's still slipping. I'm afraid I'll warp the drive shaft if I crank down any more. How do I know how tight I can go? Should I use the towel or not? A rubber sheet might be good, but I don't have any such thing.

There are so many things working against me now that I'm about to give up, put it back on as it is, and pay a shop to do it. This is getting to be way harder than I expected. It took me all day to get the drive shaft disconnected from the truck.

Is the barely staked or unstaked nut going to hold for a week until I can get an appointment with the shop?

 

impact is what you need.

 

well, that sucks.. usually they just come right off with an impact. Maybe take the shaft to a local auto repair and pay the 20 bucks or so to have them take the nut off. shouldnt need to make an appt for that.

 

@JustADriver

Where ya located? I'd be happy to help.

 

I always use an impact gun to get those nuts off.
I don’t bother trying to unstake them I just use the impact it’ll unstake itself.

 

You don’t need to unstake it. But you would be better served with an impact.

 

Jinx.

 

Same here....if you were near me I could get it off in 2 seconds......

anybody you can borrow an impact from....

 

Sure, if someone with an impact wrench happens to be local I'm just south of San Francisco.

This is my only vehicle, so I can't take the drive shaft anywhere. I need to reassemble tomorrow to use it again. I don't know any shop that would help me if I just walked in anyway. I'd get lectured about how many customers they have. It's always at least a 1 week appointment lead time.

I found some screws to get the vise onto the 2x6. Even with that, no luck with the breaker bar.

I'm regretting all this big time. The shop would have had it done by now if I had just made the appointment a couple weeks ago instead of ordering all these extra tools and parts.

 

If you don't have someone close with an impact and you don't want to/can't take it to a shop, go to Home Depot and buy a Ridgid impact/battery/charger. That way you have a battery powered impact with lifetime warranty (have to register all 3 pieces).

 

And anything that gives too much grief.......the torch has never failed me......

 

Shit, that sucks.

I'm in Fresno County so several hours away. Tons of people in your area that can quickly get you up and running in no time.

 

you need a pipe vise and an impact. done in 2 seconds, there's a reason folks charge the price to do this kind of work, because the tooling isn't cheap to DIY. But if you want it done right and you want to DIY buy the right tools and it'll make your life 1000x easier.

 

What are you guys talking about. I screwed my threads up royally, and roached the nut by not fully unstaking the nut.

Had to chase the threads and get a new $4 nut from Toyota.

 

Bolt it back on your truck. Then try and break that nut loose.

 

Well I got everything reinstalled with the old parts still on. It drives the same at all speeds as it did before, so I'm happy about not screwing up the spline alignment. Those are some pretty fine grooves, easy to be off by one. I'm a little worried now that the shop might not realign things like I was careful to. You would think with any experience they should be damn sure to mark everything, right?

 

I feel your pain brother. I hope you get it taken care of.
Keep your marks on the drive shaft.
If they put it together wrong you’ll know just by looking.

 

Shoulda left it on the truck to start with, I never had this issue

 

I'm in SF for the next two weeks and have an impact but I'm just starting a 8 consecutive workday stretch. If you're able to come into the city during the evening, shoot me a PM.

 

I noticed the marks I put on the outer shafts at the transmission end would unalign as soon as the shaft rotated, so I don't think those will be useful again. Maybe the right way to mark the spline is on the inside somehow when you have it only partway off? I put grease in the spline before reinstalling, so good luck with marking anything there. I had it in neutral the whole time so that I could rotate the shaft to remove the bolts and was just careful to remove and reinsert the spline straight in without rotating. I'm imagining now that if I had it in park that would be far better, but I'm a little unclear on it.