Pinion Yoke Nut Removal Help
 

I'm not new to this by any means, just seeing if anyone has a trick to remove the yoke nut. I have tried soaking it with WD40, air tools, and a 4 foot breaker bar and it's not moving. I've even tried whacking the breaker bar with a hammer and tried hitting the side of the yoke to see if it will break lose to no avail. Right now it is soaking again while I take a break for lunch. Any tips or tricks are appreciated.

I have an impact gun that can barely get lug nut off, but I grabbed the yoke and threw that on there and it had no trouble.

Is it spinning or is it just frozen on there? If it's frozen, only option is PB or heat, unless you are going to torch it off

It's frozen on there. I normally don't have issues with the pinion nut, just throw the air gun on or the breaker bar on and breaks free without too much of an issue. Guess it's time to break down and pick up a little butane torch since my oxy-acetylene torch is out of gas. :icon_sad:

If tour gonna use heat you as little a possible to break it loose you don't wanna weaken the pinion, into to mention your bearing! Are you doing a gear swap or just replacing the seal?

.

Breaker bar and use a floor jack on the other end of the bar to use to pry up instead of your back it will bust loose.But an impact shoulda done it. I have had to do this on siezed axle nuts.might be worth a try

i use a big pipe wrench to hold the yoke and use an impact. pb blaster is always good. i use the pipe wrench and a breaker bar with a cheater pipe on it to tighten it up too.

that's why i like electric impacts, air just gets weaker when the air pressure drops, while electric gets stronger the longer you hold the trigger.

i have a 7.5 amp 1/2 inch drive impact that only cost me 60 bux on sale, and it is good for about 280 lb/ft of torque. nothing yet has stopped this thing. pinion nuts, pitman arm nuts, axle nuts.... you name it.

sometimes the nut it struck to put a kink in the nut to help hold it on. but there might not be. if you use heat i would recommend using map gas torch because you wont get enough heat to do any damage but enough to break it loose.

This works pretty well. If your breaker bar is 2 ft and you lift 1200 lbs or so (gross underestimate of how much weight in the rear) you're putting 2400 ft lbs on that nut.

Like everyone else has said if you use heat be careful, you don't want to warp that housing

Yea, forgot to mention that I'm swapping gears. Tried the whole floor jack thing and still wouldn't budge. Went searching and found an air hammer and go figure, that knocked the nut off in no time. Now just to find a new nut. :(

Thanks for all the input.

The junkyard will have your pinion nut, if you can swing it get a nice electric impact like caged recommended!

what I do when I cant egt them off is put a breaker bar on it and wedge it up against something on the chassis, then put it in gear and drive it. I let the pinion turn while the chassis holds the nut with the breaker bar. much easier than fighting with it. just make sure you have your rotation correct

I just had to replace my pinion seal about a month ago and was pretty much forced to buy an electric impact wrench for the nut. After soaking it with PB blaster it came right off. Also, an impact wrench is an excellent investment as are most tools.

If you're looking at getting an air impact wrench go ahead and spend a few extra $$ and get a good one. My ingersol rand titanium is rated at 1000 ft/lb in reverse. I've had it for about 5 years with no problems at all. I think I gave about 250 for it at sears.