Just bought a 92' pickup and the calipers, rotors, bearings, cv axle, and sway bar are all getting replaced. Everything was going smoothly until I went to take the cv axle off. All of the nuts on the inner cv housing zipped right off with the impact wrench after using some kroil, except one. Kept spraying some kroil for about 2-3 hours, went to hit it with the impact again and still won't budge. Tightened the other nuts back on to see if it would help and nothing still. Tried tightening and then loosening. Used a cheap blow torch to get some heat on it, but didn't work either. Already tried a breaker bar, but I can't get a big enough one under the truck at the right angle, without risking stripping it. I don't want to do it but I'm thinking about trying to cut or grind off the nut. Any suggestions from you guys would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

If you can't turn it by any means available to you, what remains but to grind or torch it off???

It's easy enough to replace the bolt.

 

Is it a stud with a nut and some shaft protruding past the nut? If so, put a second nut over the top and lock the two together. You've already put the kroil on it, which is good. Give the top one 3 sharp smacks with a hammer and brass/bronze rod. Extract the stud with the nuts still on it. It's what I did on my locking hubs instead of whaling away on the cone washers. It made getting them out ridiculously easy.

 

I've never done a cv axle before nor worked on vehicles that much, I'm more on the marine side of things. Didn't know if there were any special tricks or tips to getting those off, but figured it's worth a shot asking. Going to pick up a better impact gun tomorrow and try that, if it doesn't work then I'm cutting em off.

 

And I don't think this would work. It's a pressed stud (I believe) coming from the inside with the threads facing out, the cv axle slides into those studs and you tighten the nuts down on the outside of the cv housing. Just trying to get the nut loose, not bust the stud out. I did use this method for the cone washers, worked pretty well.

 

How hard is it to replace that bolt? Aren't they machine pressed? Unless it would be fine to use a regular, unpressed bolt?

 

A few good whacks with a three pound hammer, and out it comes.

Some folks knock 'em all out and use unpressed bolts, or lightly grind the splining off the originals and re-insert them.

If you want to put it back, as built, i imagine you can get original replacements from Toyota.

 

I offroaded IFS and wasn’t light on throttle. All the peanut gallery swore IFS would grenade with throttle, locker, and 33s. Back story done

i pressed studs out of inner flange and replaced with 10.9 grade metric bolts. For easy trail repair. Ran this for years.

cut off nut/stud; press out other studs; and replace with high grade bolts. I’m not a big fan of Lowe’s or Home Depot bolt bin items. Doing so will make swapping shafts a quick endeavor.

 

Thanks for the info, sounds like a good setup for easy install without losing much if any integrity.

 

I agree with mudpigg. I'm not an engineer, but I don't understand the logic behind Toyota designing splined studs for CVs. Would a normal bolt somehow loosen up and spin out or separate? I don't think so. I think it's a ploy to get us to go to the dealership for maintenance. I never owned an impact wrench until I had to take those CVs off....I love Toyotas, especially of this era, but this design choice is a head-scratcher.

 

Toyota does weird things that way. Example, our driveshaft bolts. The transfer case flanges have pressed in studs. The differential ends are free bolts. Same size bolts, same torque on flange joint, same torque on bolts. Why the difference?
The fact is, if the CV bolts are torqued correctly, there's no difference in joint integrity between pressed studs and regular bolts of the proper grade. The joint holds by applying enough pressure to sandwich the flanges together so they don't slip. Shaft torque is transmitted through flange friction, NOT through shear force on the bolts. If there is inadequate bolt torque to provide enough friction to keep the flanges from slipping, the joint will eventually fail, no matter what bolts are used.

I suspect the pressed studs make manufacturing assembly easier, and that's why they are used, not for joint integrity.