| Before starting anything, the Bentley
recommends to loosen the drive axle nut with the car on
the ground, so you don't topple it off your jack stands.
However, this is where I hit snag number 1. Whoever worked on the rear end last (not me -- honest) didn't have a lockplate for the driver's side nut, so they decided that they were going to take out all their aggressions torqueing that nut down. The sucker wouldn't budge. The other problem was that with the wheel on, the nut was too deep causing the breaker bar to be at an angle such that when I was loosening the nut, the socket kept wanting to slip off. An extension would cause the same problem and this was NOT a nut I wanted to strip! |
 Note bad angle of breaker bar. |
| So I did what the Bentley recommends
against (so of course I don't recommend it) and put the
rear end up on jackstands, removed the wheel, and set the
parking brake to keep the wheels from turning. I
then used my hydraulic jack handle as a cheater bar along
with the breaker bar and the nut broke free. The passenger's side was easier as it had a lockplate and the nut wasn't nearly as tight. The lockplate was rusted in pretty good, but some prying with a small standard screwdriver and some pulling with needle nosed pliers did the trick. |
 Jack handle being used as cheater bar. |
