Over Thanksgiving break I had the distinct privilege of exploding my roto-flex, which necessitated a day of work in my parents garage 200+ miles from home.

I replaced the roto-flex, and the front U-joint for good measure. Here's where I ran into problems (and where I have a few questions).

I had trouble getting the four nylon-insert locknuts off the studs or bolts from the e-brake drum. The problem was the bolts would spin with the nuts. Is this normal? I expected these bolts to be more like wheel studs, compression fit with splines or something.

I finally got them off by spinning them quickly with an air ratchet, while pushing the nuts sideways with the socket for extra resistance. However, it felt like I was missing something. Is there a trick to this? I ended up replacing them with normal nuts and the wavy style of lock washers, since getting the nylon-insert nuts back on was even more of a pain.

So I guess what's confusing me is this: it seems that to tighten (or loosen) the nuts properly, I'd have to take off that brake drum and put a wrench on the back end. Obviously that doesn't make much sense, what am I missing here? I was kind of in a hurry to fix it and get back on the road, but I'd like to know what tricks I need for next time. You know, if I shred another roto-flex, or have to take the driveshaft off for any other reason.

Thanks in advance, and I hope it's not too much of a dumb question.

 

I had the same problems removing mine. I ended up tack welding the bolt heads on the inside flange and used nyloc nuts when I reasembled.

 

Yeah, I may have to do that next time I have it off, I just didn't have access to a welder at the time. I'm still confused about it though, did they assemble it from the factory with the drum off so they could tighten the bolts, and then install the U-joint in place? Or maybe they put the differential in after the driveshaft was assembled?

Thanks for the tip on welding those, seems like a good idea to me.

 

Yeah I cussed mine till i broke out the impact on them. Tack welding seemed to be a quik fix on reassembleing.

 

You do know not to reuse that type of locknut anyway.