I had to change the harmonic balancer on my son's Eclipse. Try as I may, I couldn't budge that 22mm bolt with a breaker bar. So I borrowed a co-workers Craftsman 1/2" Impact Driver. I had my son get in the car and told him to put his foot on the brake. Three seconds later I said "we're done". He asked "is it stuck?". I said "no, it's off - not loose, it's off".

How in the wide-wide-world-of-sports did I ever survive without owning an impact driver?

That free use of an impact driver is about to cost me several hundreds for a 1/2" driver and socket set. A 3/8" set wont be far behind. When I think back to how many times I've struggled with stuck or hard-to-get at nuts and bolts...

Blasphemy!!! Levers are a man's best friend.... just need a longer breaker bar.....size does matter!

Below is the worst Nut on the Z.... no problem:)

So, Blue, you don't have an impact wrench........

Nope, no impact gun here. I do respect them but never needed one. I just have a hammer drill but that mostly attacks cement fasteners.

I also curse the mechanics who over tighten lug nuts with them... seems to happen often.

Nope, no impact gun here. I do respect them but never needed one. I just have a hammer drill but that mostly attacks cement fasteners.

I also curse the mechanics who over tighten lug nuts with them... seems to happen often.

I have both an electric and an air operated impact (as well as a hammer drill but I don't think I've ever used that on a vehcle). Most 'tire jockeys' don't know that the torque can be adjusted on an impact gun so there's no reason to ever over tighten anything with them. Do you actually mean a hammer drill or an air hammer?.

Edited July 1, 201113 yr by sblake01

I have a cordless Makita Impact Driver with 3/8" drive. I use my regular sockets, and this is an awesome tool for light assembly/disassembly. Great tool to bring to the U-Pull junk yard to pull parts.

I picked up an impact wrench/driver at a home depot triple mark down a couple of years ago and I have yet to use it. I am on to the rear axle nut and wondering if I can just hit it with the impact wrench and not bother with the unstaking. It will be my first use of this monster. Anyone remove one this way, do I run the risk of messing up the threads? Particularly since I have never used one of these things might be a good time to start? I do have the trusty breaker bar as well.

I read it messes the threads if you don't un-stake them. If you have a dremel with a cutting disk it is not so bad.

Use the 280zx nuts to replace them. No staking required.

btw to respond to a query above. I have a hammer drill. I used it to drill pilot holes prior to fastening spikes in concrete.

I may have used it on a vehicle once as an experiment.

Since July I've used my IR 231 Impact to replace the hub bearings on my Silverado, replace brakes on my Audi, rotate tires and even to drive some lag bolts on my deck. I love this tool.

Yes, by all means use that impact driver.

Blue, thanks for the reply. Also, a Big Thanks for all the technical posts you have made. You have made my job go from "no way can I do that" to "Yea, I can do that (if I follow Blue's easy step by step instructions). Thanks for the time you take to post your work and make it understandable for the occassional wrench jockey. You have probably saved more Z's from mr. junkyard and also made the cars safer for the owners.

Where are you in NJ? I am in Bridgewater at 287/22 if you ever need a hand.

I was in Edison, now down in Atlanta. Appreciate the offer, if you are ever in Atlanta let me know.