The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 50 chevy 2 ton axle nut tool

can anyone give me the correct part number and where to buy etc for the axle nut removal tool. also, is the passenger side reverse threaded?

On my '50 Chevy COE the passenger side axle spindle is NOT reverse threaded. Regarding the tool I have only seen one on Ebay in the past nine years of searching. A friend made me one with a section of pipe with a socket welded on one end and the other tig welded 6 studs to fit the nut. The real tool also has an extension that fits inside the spindle to better hold it in the proper orientation.

Most people use a punch placed into the slots in the nut. Over time this distorts the slot, especially if someone has had to really punish the punch to get the nut to move.

Kent

I've always made those tools, using a piece of pipe with lengths of 1/4" key stock welded to the outside and a hole drilled in the end for a pry bar to be used for turning it.
Jerry

Get a nut off with a punch as described, then take one to your Flaps and keep trying the 4 wheel drive versions of removal sockets until you find one that fits. I found mine at Autozone.

I forgot to mention that it would be impossible to set the nut to the proper torque when reassembling, in order to set the bearing preload, without some sort of tool. I don't know how you do it tightening the nut with a punch. So after you get it apart, get one made like Jerry suggests and keep it with your truck.

Kent

I'm pretty sure a few million of those nuts have been "torqued" with the hammer and punch method over the past decades. Take the slack out with the inner nut, add a little preload, then use the outer one as a lock, with a tabbed lock washer in between the two. Once I get a nut off, I put pieces of key stock in the slots of the nut and use a radiator hose clamp to secure them, then I use a piece of pipe or a worn out socket as a center piece. Weld or braze the square stock to the center. If a square drive socket is used, it's easy to use a torque wrench for accurate tightening. More likely, it will get the procedure an oldtimer taught me 60 years ago- - - - - -"Give 'er a good grunt!"
Jerry

I love it..."Give 'er a good grunt"...that pretty much sums up what these old trucks were designed to withstand.