Propeller shaft removal

[rock141b]

Hi, trying to remove the drive shaft on my 75 2002, when I went to the back to remove the pinion bolts I ran into trouble. The bolts have a round head so trying to remove the nuts have been very difficult to say the least. Now I've tried the biggest 17mm wrench I have with no luck along with a penetrating oil. So has anyone had this problem, should I break out the big torch? or just cut them off, thanks for the help.

[JhwShark]

You are talking about the four bolts that attach the propeller shaft to the differential out flange (4 nuts) or are you referring to the drive shaft to wheels (6 nuts).

I would be cautious applying heat around the p-shaft. maybe a cutting tool is better. Also, Craftsman and others have a nice low cost set of nut breakers. I used for similar rounded nuts on my Porsche starter successfully; hardened metal nuts and bolts can be difficult to cut.

You also do not want to bend the p-shaft more than 18 degrees from u-joint and do not disasemble the center bearing if you do not have to it needs a certain amount of tension. You are replacing the guibo coupling while in there, right?

The nuts and bolts from the p-shaft shouldn't be rounded nor should any bolt. Use new nuts for these applications. You know the cause of rounded nuts, just use a t-wrench to spec and you'll be fine.
Jon

[rock141b]

Hi thanks for your imput, I finally wound up breaking out the ol torch and heating them up and they finally broke loose. I didnt think it would take that much to remove them, and since it was new to me I didnt recognize the bolts because they didnt have any head they were just round. I did finally see that they had a slot cut into the head that rested on the shaft so you could take off or put on the nut, thanks again.