HELP!!!! Downpipe nuts won't loosen!

Lemme tell ya, those nuts are a bitch. I had your exact same problem, i got 2 of the nuts off, (the 2 more accessible ones) but the one in the upper left corner didn't come off and i ended up stripping it. (i got the ratchet on their with a swivel and extensions) Ok, i have 2 suggestions. What i did to get mine off was to dremel the nut off, literally cut it free. I don't recommend doing this though because it's quite frustrating. If i remember correctly, when i was installing new turboes (have to drop the downpipe) in my car, i got to all the downpipe nuts off without a swivel. Get yourself about 18-24 inches of extension and come in from further back. This should allow you to securely get the socket on the nut firmly. Now let the end of the ratchet be sticking perpendicular to the bottom of the car so u can get a good lever on there, (the longer the better) and then just give it some muscle. I think that should work, but if not, the dremel may be the way you have to go. The nut was such a bitch to get off i actually kept it as a "reminder" that you never know how long a "simple" job is gonna take. (the downpipe install should take about 1.5-2 hours, ended up taking me like 6) When i get my digital camera i'll post a picture of it.

Re: Update!

mysupratt said:

Well... I was able to spend a few hours last night with the dremel tool and I still haven't been able to cut any nuts off. I'm being very careful about not going too deep and hitting the threads. It's hard to get that tool up there. I'm trying to get as close as I can and then I will chisel and bang the hell out of the bitches to knock them loose or something. All I can say is that in my wildest nightmare I would not have imagined wasting the entire labor day weekend under the car trying to cut these nuts. Sad... sad day for me

Click to expand...

If you can focus your Dremel-ing on one side of the nut, you can then use the chisel to basically cut out the nut... turn it into a 'C' instead of the typical 'O'...

What this lets you do is basically rotate it freely.

Another thing to use is a torch. You can heat the nut until it's a cherry red and then chisel the shit out of it. Be wary of burning yourself. The tips of my fingers have burns in the shape of thread-marks right now.

It sounds to me like you're too far along to consider impact wrenches, as drilling and rounding off the nuts will prevent the use of sockets.

This is really a case in which you just have to work at it and be patient. I did the same thing on my wife's exhaust last weekend ... spent about 3 hours on Saturday, and then sat down Sunday with the drill, chisel, and propane torch and nuked the fuckers in like 15 minutes a piece.

Sometimes it helps to put the tools down and just come back later after you've thought about it.

I had a similar problem on the Corolla (fucking east coast salt damage) when I replaced the cat. That was before I knew how to drill and chisel these babies off easily, and I ended up putting so much pressure on the thing that I messed up my back and had to go to physical therapy for a couple of months.

Pretty funny. Tried to save $$ by doing it myself and ended up in pain for like a year before I went in to therapy.

Anyway, my point is to take time and ensure that you focus on the nut while avoiding doing damage to the studs.

Lastly, be proud of yourself when you finish this shit. This is the kind of job that turns you from a girlie-girl "wrencher" into a real sonofabitch when it comes to car work. Regardless of time, think of the money you've saved yourself.

Keep it up. Email me if you need a prompt response as I didn't see the responses to this and didn't get back as fast as I could.

Rusted Bolts are Sent from Hell

This past weekend I helped remove an entire exhuast system from an 86 Shelby GLHS. That's 15 years of East Coast salt crap accumulation. After getting the exhuast hangers off using a 4 foot lever to extend the socket, the god damn thing was welded together at each point. So, being young and stupid, we took out a hacksaw and proceeded to cut the pipe in half and remove each piece. This worked for about 10 mins and then our arms didn't feel strong enough to wipe our own asses. Limited with tools, we took a hand axe, stuck it into the groove we so nicely created with the hacksaw, and slammed it in with a mallet. after about 300 shots, we split exhaust enough to break it apart by bending it back and forth, in which globs of rusted oil, water, etc spilled onto my arm. That was not fun.