It was the castle nut that I had to remove to replace the wheel bearing. I wound up taking it to a shop that got it off for me.
I even used a blowtorch, though it was a cold windy day and didn't have a good enough flame. But that didn't help.
High impact wrench
- Thread starter mlc2000
- Start date
It was the castle nut that I had to remove to replace the wheel bearing. I wound up taking it to a shop that got it off for me.
I even used a blowtorch, though it was a cold windy day and didn't have a good enough flame. But that didn't help.
Agreed. We should have been able to get it off but we couldn't. Unsure exactly what the shop used to get it off. And I was just way too happy to hear that news to ask. Didn't want to have to deal with a frozen nut.
Ralphman
New member
Sounds like the nut was cross threaded or the threads were fubar. Do you know what the shop did to remove the nut?
Checked the threads on the spline and the nut. Only issue I found was that at the tip of the spline, the thread was damaged in one small spot that wouldn't allow the nut to come off. This was found before I took it to the shop and was not like that the last time I replaced the bearing. So it had to have happened when the axle was replaced. I easily fixed that.
The nut looked perfect except on the back end of it, you could tell it had been through some force.
I didn't ask the shop what they used, was just too happy to have it off without any issue and ran back to the house to put in the new bearing.
Dropzone
New member
Ask, you have a ton of us wondering now.
In the 40+ cars/trucks i have owned over the years never ran into a fastener i couldn't remove
Maybe just a bigger impact wrench.
https://store.snapon.com/1-Drive-He...r-Super-Duty-1-Drive-Blue-Point--P640881.aspx
derekdevasia
New member
I'll third the Milwaukee. Have almost all Milwaukee tools and it does beat the Dewalt in terms of torque testing. There's a guy on youtube who does a legit testing of the dewalt, ingersol rand and the Milwaukee. Have had both the dewalt and the Milwaukee and the dewalt and i go to the milwaukee everytime.
I've always used air tools. I've got everything from 1/4-3/8-1/2 impact wrenches plus many other air tools. Don't know what I would do without them!
Having an air compressor is very handy. You can inflate tires, use an air nailer, sander, ratchet, hammer, spray gun etc. With that said if you wouldn't use any of that, then maybe an electric / battery operated wrench is a better route.
Having an air compressor is very handy. You can inflate tires, use an air nailer, sander, ratchet, hammer, spray gun etc. With that said if you wouldn't use any of that, then maybe an electric / battery operated wrench is a better route.
I dabble with woodworking and home improvement projects so I purchased a Ryobi set from Home Depot. They are inexpensive and they get the job done. I purchased the same Impact Wrench and it was a life saver when did the Bilstein swap. I also take it on road trips in case I get a flat.
I had to send a Ryobi tool for service and they have the same parent company as Milwaukee.
In hindsight I would have paid a little more and gone with Ridgid. They offer a full lifetime warranty including their batteries.
Ralphman
New member
Batteries are not cheap, i let a truck driver use my Ir one time ro replace the boards on his low boy which i didnt know at the time, he came back like 15 min later and asked for a different battery so i gave him my other tried to charge the dead one which was full when he got it from me. He left and i put it on the charger and it starts flashing a red light sayint it gas a dead cell and wont take a charge, long story short dont run electric impacts like its a hammer drill they are ment to be used in short burst, that was a $180 lesson the truck driver had after me ripping him a new one. That pretty cool that someone offers a lifetime warranty on batteries tho
I've read it's hard or impossible to take advantage of the battery service agreement (it's not a warranty, technically), and I have some experience. I bought a Rigid drill with 1 battery, and like clockwork the battery stopped working a few years later. I tried to get a replacement, but I found out they "lost" my service agreement registration, and I no longer had copies. I read that even if it's properly registered batteries are often out of stock or you have to go to an obscure distributor (not Home Depot where the tools are sold). And then they make it a hassle, testing both the charger and the battery. I gave up and sold the drill and charger, minus battery, for almost as much as I originally paid. I don't know if they've gotten any better about honoring the lifetime battery thing, but like I said, I gave up. Lifetime replacement for a consumable item like batteries is too good to be true, anyway.
I use power tools so rarely that the batteries usually die from disuse before I get my money's worth. I'll stick with corded tools unless there's a tool I plan to use all the time, in which case I wouldn't mind replacing the battery every few years.
I replaced the Rigid drill with a 12V drill from a local building material thrift store (like Habitat Restore) that I paid $1 for. It came with no battery, so I power it with a small 12V lead acid battery I already had. It's slow, but I've drilled 3/8" holes in 1/4" thick mild steel, no problem. Not bad for $1.
12V tools are ideal if you must use cordless since you can power them from your truck, a computer power supply, or your neighbor's low voltage landscape lighting system when the battery eventually dies.
pjbrownva
New member
I have the Milwaukee one too, and all I can say is WOW!!!
I previously had the Ryobi one, and there is no comparison.
The Milwaukee one has far more torque, and the battery lasts a very, very
long time. I have their "xc 5.0" batteries which stands for "extended capacity" with 5 amp hrs of storage.
The Milwaukee has 1,100 ft-lbs of torque to break loose tight bolts. That's the equivalent of putting 100 lbs of force on an 11 foot pipe!!!
It's hard to beat that.
For any of the (high powered) impact wrenches, be sure to get impact sockets (they're black)... the silver colored sockets for your hand tools are too brittle for use in an impact wrench. The can crack and split on you. The black ones are a softer metal that has more give to it,
plus the black impact rated sockets are often six-pointed sockets which grip a bolt much more securely than a 12 pointed socket.
Amazon sells some basic sets for about $30-$50 dollars.
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The impact drivers are typically rated in in-lbs, not ft-lbs. 1,100 in-lbs is still close to 100 ft-lbs which is good enough to break a lug nut and just about any other bolts.
Also, I just got a Milwaukee for Christmas but have to wait for Santa.
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Now that one doesn't come in your standard kit. I need that one. 1/2" gives 10x the power.
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jfry008
New member
Yea I have the smaller impact too and I never use it. I use the 1/2" impact a lot.
Milwaukee should make a kit with the 1/2" impact and a drill.
pjbrownva
New member
Nope... Milwaukee really does sell a model with 1,100 FT-LBS of unscrewing torque!
Well, they can be rated in both. My Ryobi 1/2 in impact driver was rated in in-lbs... at the time I bought it, and doing the math I think is was about 150 to 200 ft-lbs -- but it drained batteries sooo quickly that I think the torque was quickly reduced. Plus, for anything very tight, the Ryobi just didn't do the job. It never once loosened a wheel lug nut for me (maybe they were all over-tightened... I'm sure that's common). I always need to struggle with a breaker bar to get them loose, then put the Ryobi on.
My Milwaukee is totally different. It's loosed nuts that I would have tried to work at with a 3 foot breaker bar. After all, I would need to apply 366 LBS of force to a 3 foot breaker bar to achieve the 1,100 foot pounds that my Milwaukee puts out. It's simply INCREDIBLE!
I just looked up the new Ryobi model, and it was listed as "Impact mechanism produces 200 ft. lbs. of torque and 0-3000 impacts per minute".
The Milwaukee that I have is a 1/2 impact driver with a snap-ring on the anvil, and it has the following specs:
Note that this is the "FUEL" line, which has their brushless motors, and that it can put out 1,100 FT-LBS of torque to unscrew nuts... which is simply NUTS!!!
Also note that there are several (maybe 6 or so) very similar 1/2 impact drivers they sell, so check the specs on the one you buy... some have less max torque.
The one I have has about 6x to 10x more than the Ryobi impact driver solutions (depending on model), and is A LOT more powerful than most (but not all) of the air-powered impact drivers available -- and the battery I have (XC 5.0 - 5 amp hrs) last a long, long time even when worked under a heavy load.
Looking at air toos, for example, most of the Matco air impact drivers tend to run from about350 ft-lbs to 800 ft-lbs. of torque for removing nuts -- although Matco does make 3/4" impact driver with a whopping 1800 ft-lbs.
Who would have thought that you could have a portable, battery operated impact driver with MORE torque than MOST of the air-driven ones!
Well, they can be rated in both. My Ryobi 1/2 in impact driver was rated in in-lbs... at the time I bought it, and doing the math I think is was about 150 to 200 ft-lbs -- but it drained batteries sooo quickly that I think the torque was quickly reduced. Plus, for anything very tight, the Ryobi just didn't do the job. It never once loosened a wheel lug nut for me (maybe they were all over-tightened... I'm sure that's common). I always need to struggle with a breaker bar to get them loose, then put the Ryobi on.
My Milwaukee is totally different. It's loosed nuts that I would have tried to work at with a 3 foot breaker bar. After all, I would need to apply 366 LBS of force to a 3 foot breaker bar to achieve the 1,100 foot pounds that my Milwaukee puts out. It's simply INCREDIBLE!
I just looked up the new Ryobi model, and it was listed as "Impact mechanism produces 200 ft. lbs. of torque and 0-3000 impacts per minute".
The Milwaukee that I have is a 1/2 impact driver with a snap-ring on the anvil, and it has the following specs:
Note that this is the "FUEL" line, which has their brushless motors, and that it can put out 1,100 FT-LBS of torque to unscrew nuts... which is simply NUTS!!!
Also note that there are several (maybe 6 or so) very similar 1/2 impact drivers they sell, so check the specs on the one you buy... some have less max torque.
The one I have has about 6x to 10x more than the Ryobi impact driver solutions (depending on model), and is A LOT more powerful than most (but not all) of the air-powered impact drivers available -- and the battery I have (XC 5.0 - 5 amp hrs) last a long, long time even when worked under a heavy load.
Looking at air toos, for example, most of the Matco air impact drivers tend to run from about350 ft-lbs to 800 ft-lbs. of torque for removing nuts -- although Matco does make 3/4" impact driver with a whopping 1800 ft-lbs.
Who would have thought that you could have a portable, battery operated impact driver with MORE torque than MOST of the air-driven ones!
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pjbrownva
New member
To answer the OP's original questions directly...
Yes, they are expensive.
Good ones are $170 to $250 without batteries, and can be $400 - $500+ with batteries & charger.
(The snap-on one was about $750).
Undeniably. As [MENTION=142374]j4run[/MENTION] wrote
Several of the electric ones are actually MORE POWERFUL than most of the air driven ones.
There are several good choices. The most powerful electric ones have about 1000 Ft-Lbs of torque to UNSCREW bolts, while most of
the air powered ones have somewhere between 350 Ft-Lbs to 750 Ft-Lbs of torque.
Home Depot currently has a "special buy" on a Milwaukee set with a 1/2" impact driver, a charger and THREE of their high capacity (XC 5.0) batteries for $429.
If you get Milwaukee, look carefully at the specs of the model you buy. There are probably a dozen different Milwaukee models, and some are much more powerful than others (like 4x more powerful !!!).
Here's a link and screen print to the current "special buy":
Special Buy @ home depot
Yes, they are expensive.
Good ones are $170 to $250 without batteries, and can be $400 - $500+ with batteries & charger.
(The snap-on one was about $750).
Undeniably. As [MENTION=142374]j4run[/MENTION] wrote
Several of the electric ones are actually MORE POWERFUL than most of the air driven ones.
There are several good choices. The most powerful electric ones have about 1000 Ft-Lbs of torque to UNSCREW bolts, while most of
the air powered ones have somewhere between 350 Ft-Lbs to 750 Ft-Lbs of torque.
Home Depot currently has a "special buy" on a Milwaukee set with a 1/2" impact driver, a charger and THREE of their high capacity (XC 5.0) batteries for $429.
If you get Milwaukee, look carefully at the specs of the model you buy. There are probably a dozen different Milwaukee models, and some are much more powerful than others (like 4x more powerful !!!).
Here's a link and screen print to the current "special buy":
Special Buy @ home depot
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