Mongolian

I've been hearing clicking noises when I drive (lower speed) so I did my research and I've diagnosed it as a bad CV axle.

I tried to replace the driver side CV axle today on my 2001 Honda Accord EX (4 cylinder). I looked at a video and looked pretty straight forward. It looked like the hardest part was removing the axle nut and pulling the axle from the transmission.

When I got to axle nut, I saw a little crinkle on the nut which was also shown on the video, but I also saw that the about 20% of the nut was welded on purposely to the assembly! Now the welding wasn't part of the video. Is it normal for the axle nut to be welded to the assembly? I tried to chip it away, but I gave up because it was way too much. I shot the nut with 500 lb/ft torque and the thing wouldn't budge due to the weld.

How in the world do I get this thing loose? Maybe I need to take it to a shop and have them cut the bolt?

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

nut should not be welded. maybe take a pic for us.

Mongolian

Well, I would but the nut has been partially mutilated by me chipping at it. One of the octagon sides fused to the axle shaft either by a weld or it simply melted and fused itself. If you worked on your axles before you'll know what I'm talking about.

My car has over 215k miles. I am pretty certain the two metals fused. Maybe they fused because the car is so old??

Shoofin

Torch it?

Mongolian

One more round of chiseling and I guess I have no choice but to take it in. I love this car even if it is beat up to death.

So I just checked the passenger side axles and the passenger side nut is not fused. I must've replaced the driver side CV axle about 100k miles ago when I blindly said OK to all dealer diagnosis. This was many years ago before I started working on my own cars.... This proves dealers can't be trusted (assuming that the dealer welded the nut)

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

I've replaced my share of axles, and there's no way it would fuse on it's own. Either some shitty mechanic welded it, or you didn't bend out the tab that's supposed to be dented in. Sometimes air guns aren't enough either. When I did my old accord I had to put a 6 foot long pipe over a breaker bar and literally stand on the end of it to get it to break loose. The heat cycling of the hub can certainly help freeze the nut on, especially since they are supposed to have 220lb/ft.

Mongolian

The first thing I did was to undent the little crinkle thingy. Well the impact wrench that I used was borrowed from a neighbor who is a bus mechanic and he said his impact wrench is a super impact wrench that loosens bus wheel bolts. It's suppose to be rated at 650 lbs/ft. Maybe it wasn't strong enough, but then again, the more i chiseled it the more I noticed it was welded. Probably welded on purpose from what you are telling if these things don't get fused over time.

trancemission

Mine was fused when I did my axle. I just drilled holes at 12 and 6 and beat on it till it split...