Aye needing more than any claim to the torque the wrenches they say can do!
As far as the shaft is concerned , yeah just a pig , however after hitting my hand twice in the same place I managed to punch it out ,?both sides , the fun starts putting it all back together !!!!

When I did my fronts I took out the centre cap from the wheel and used a big breaker bar but I like your idea.

To get the shaft out I put the nut on finger tight and backed off a turn and used a length of wood and big hammer to hammer it and kept backing of a turn and repeating so I knew it was moving. I changed to an aluminium drift to push the shaft out when it went into the hub. The nut protects the thread and stops the end of the shaft getting damaged and not going through the hub or damaging the thread. I used a new nut when I put it back together but used the old nut first to pull the shaft through fully.

One shaft in far enough to catch the thread , and yeah good idea with using the old nuts , I have two new ones . The inner tork headed long bolts were just as bad to remove and I thought they were going to snap but using a bit of heat I nursed them out , had to get four new ones as the heads got a bit mashed! Back to work!

Often when i have been working on suspension bolts I have found that the socket or torx bit that you think is the right one is actually a different size so i always try tapping the next size up on a torx bit or down if a socket as the rust can be misleading.

Heat always helps, i bought a little oxy / mapp torch which is great.

I also have a 750 mm breaker bar which really helps if you can get it in.

Glad you said that about torks , initially I fitted a size too big and after using my big bar I thought I had snapped them , then twigged it was the wrong size !
Yeah yellow tin with a trigger screwed on , great tool , lasts forever.
Half way through first rebuild , tricky on your own lining up suspension holes etc.

I got the torch with the two separate cans of oxy and map, about 1100 deg c i think.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Oxyturbo-turbo-...SwEppUUL52

When i did my rear hub bushes i couldn't get them to line up whatever i did and then I read on here about somebody letting the handbrake off and everything fell into place, as long as your wheels are chocked of course.

OK , thats great , but I have a problem. When I went to dismantle the hub I slackened the top hub nut by mistake , so now I have lost the original alignment , apart from guessing the old position on the eccentric washers is there anyway of matching up with opposite rear .

holidaychicken wrote:

I got the torch with the two separate cans of oxy and map, about 1100 deg c i think.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Oxyturbo-turbo-...SwEppUUL52

When i did my rear hub bushes i couldn't get them to line up whatever i did and then I read on here about somebody letting the handbrake off and everything fell into place, as long as your wheels are chocked of course.

HeyIlike that setup with the gas kit , Ihad the larger version before I retired from farming , but renting fro boc didn’t justify the overall cost of using it . I eventually went and bought the small mixed gas and torch fro Screwfix , will have to start saving .
I have eventually matched the top hub mount with the other side which is totally different to original , one side might be correct , so will have to take a chance on that setting.

That should be ok to get you to the 4 wheel alignment centre, if you can smell rubber burning on the way there and the back end keeps trying to overtake you then drive faster to get you there sooner

Trying to move on but hit two more problems, firstly when trying to clean and adjust handbrake shoes I had to accept that the back plates have crumbled literally, so new ones ordered but will have to cut them to fit from what I see, and the other problem while hammering the hub to get the shaft persuaded to get through to it’s normal position I have noticed some play so hopefully this might disappear once torqued, I’ve taken a video , but not sure if I can upload.https://youtu.be/Er7X4rUFHWk

Problem averted ! I torqued up the loose hub shown in the video , it has inadvertently gone loose with hitting the outer edge of the hub to get the shaft in and split the bearing inside, I guess and torquing it fully up I felt it pulling together ....phew

The tin back plates are crap and work back to front to the old cars where you poked the post through from the back and then fitted the spring and a dish shaped washer on the inside. With the fatty the post pokes out the back and the slightest rust allows the post to pull through as you have found.
My solution was to buy some of the old style dished washers which fitted perfectly into the recess in the plate which I held in place with a bit of chemical metal so now nice and reinforced where the post passes through the plate.

Yeah can see here your coming from , already someone had used m6 screws with washers at the back , but if you want I can post a pic of the back plates left
on mine , then you would see why I had to to change them . Just like toffee!

will you cut the new ones and then weld / tack them back together ?

I've not done it but I would look at where the bolt holes are so they are evenly mounted and also where you can get to to weld them. make sure you disconnect everything before welding and you may be able to split one side to centre and twist them on. or take your hubs off again...