Front hub locknuts....

Alright, after buzzing all over town and frustrating myself I finally got a hub socket for the locknut inside the hub. Now I start cranking it over and over, and about 20 minutes later I realized nothing was coming out. Frustrated I searched the internet high and low on how to remove this thing. Pulled on all surfaces, removed these little rolled steel pins, still no response from this thing

Maybe the axle shaft is turning with the axle nut. Is there a tire on the other side? Is it on the ground so it won't turn?

Hmmm.. Sounds like the spindle nut/ or spindle is stripped. Can you try to get behind it with a big 90deg pick and pull out. Sometimes it will catch a thread and come out.
If not, grind thru the spindle nut with a die grinder and work it out that way.
The torch is the last resort.
Ive taken apart a couple melted hubs and its never a fun job. Not to mention it takes all day to do what should take a hour or two.

If it is anything like the civvy suburban front end I had to knock down the lockring betweem the two locknuts and drive them off together. the outer one had been stripped when it was installed last. They cam off together with some effort. The spindle was ok I just had to replace the nuts.

Thanks all for the speedy reply,

I think there is a woodruff key jammed in between the spindle and nut upon further inspection. Ill try sucking out the pin with a vacuum cleaner tommorow and see if it turns after that. I beleive the roll pins on the outer flange of the nut is there to let it slide in case any class A geniouses do exactly what I did, which was crank it over with the key still in

kassim503 said:

Thanks all for the speedy reply,

I think there is a woodruff key jammed in between the spindle and nut upon further inspection. Ill try sucking out the pin with a vacuum cleaner tommorow and see if it turns after that. I beleive the roll pins on the outer flange of the nut is there to let it slide in case any class A geniouses do exactly what I did, which was crank it over with the key still in

Click to expand...

hold the boat here dudes.... There are no woodruff keys in the 10 bolt front end. I have no idea where you got the roller looking things. The only thing I can think of is bearing parts. How it goes is #1 bearing #2 spindle nut (sometimes a washer is first) #3 locking plate #4 spindle nut#2 then your locking hubs and all that.

Is it a spare key for something else?

Whoa now, mine has some woodruff's, I plucked em today! It also accepts only the 3/4-1 ton type nut wrench too, mabye sombody jammed the larger hub nut types into there or something? Ill take photos during the reassembly tommorow.

And no, the key was for the locking of the nut 100% and my previous post about the roll pins seems to be for a safety mechanism against idiots seems to hold true.

1st make sure your soc is correct size. I have not removed one on the 10 bolt but have on the dana 60. Since it is open diff. the axle will turn whether or not other tire is on ground. Best way if you have one is to use air impact. Can't tell from pic but is that another C clip in front of the spanner nut you are trying to remove??

Dudes, the axle is not bolted to the spindle, it passes through the spindle. Stop worrying about the axle turning, it has nothing to do with it.

I may have missed it in the trhead but there was a production change. The '83 & 84 used one style nut (yours) and the 85, 86, & 87 CUCV used the other style.
I took the older ones off and threw them over the fince and purchased the new ones from Chevy and then purchased the appropriate socket too.
Look at the 84 and older portion of the TM and then the 85 & newer part.
jimm1009

Ok ok to clarify everything up, no front axle should have c-clips on the carrier, there is no reason to cause the shaft is retained through the hub. C clips live only in rear axles, unless its a full floater.

Jimm1009 got it right on the dot, I took apart those old style nuts which contained a woodruff key, and reassembled it. Shoulda tossed them though. I really wished I had the patientce to take photos, but I didnt wanna dirty up the camera with all of that nasty grease. Basically it combines 67-69 from Westech's diagram into one mess of a lock nut.

I could see why they used this form, you techincally can service the hub only using a needlenose plier and the proper size allen key.

Off topic- Westech, how fast where you going when you hit that water in your avatar?!@ I thought I worked my CUCV