so what do I do in this situation? I was trying to replace the ujoint on my rear drive shaft and on the last nut that holds the ujoint to the parking brake drum the wrench slipped and stripped it. it was actually partially stripped to begin with but I went ahead and made sure it was nice and round! so here is my big issue, I have no clearance to use any conventional methods of removal. I can barely get my vise grips on it, cant get a file in there, can't separate the ujoint where it is at to get extra clearance (well maybe I could, I tried for a few minutes but then I decided it was probably a bad idea).

So does anyone has an ingenious idea or know of a great tool for this situation?

also on a side note, what is the possibility of removing the drum/driveshaft together? and if it is a possibility how do I do it?

 

if their is nothing that can catch on fire i would just get a cutting torch and cut it off. that is just a thought. if u do make sure to only cut the bolt. be careful

 

No chance of getting a compact nut breaker on it? I know that's a tight space to work with. Sorry I have no good ideas for this one. Good luck.

 

Craftsman has some extraction tools that work fairly well. They are a heliarchal cutting edge that the more you turn, the more it is supposed to bite. I have also used a dremel with the small carbon cutting blade that is wafer thin. You can usually get something like that into a tight space. I cut a rear caliper off with one when the last bolt on it would not come out.

 

Needle nose vise grips.
Those are nylock nuts so you could melt the plastic and then it should basically fall off.
Urban Panzer has a how to replace your parking brake shoes, if you remove the parking brake drum be prepared for springs to fall out.

 

I'd probably take a cold chisel and grind it down to near a point and hold it against the nut at an angle where when I hit it with a hammer it would work to turn the nut. Failing that, a dremel.

For the future, use a 6pt box end to at least get them started, and for the final tightening.

 

Take a couple sockets, sae and metric, within a size or two of original, and find one that is too small but close. tap it on with a hammer over the rounded nut and put a ratchet on it and carefully try to loosen.

Or if you can get any sort of small grinding tool in there to put two flats on it to put an open end wrench on.

 

I tried filing it down to try to fit a smaller wrench on it, but I just couldn't get it to work. sockets are a no go because the drive shaft side of the ujoint does not give me enough clearance to get a socket over it let alone hammer it on, I don't know if I can even hammer a wrench on it very well. I will try needle nose VGs when I get around to it. I guess after that I will have to break out the chisel I just don't want to tear up any of the components that this is connected to like the T case or the parking brake.

 

Dremel with a cutting wheel can be very accurate used. I cut off a caliper body when I could not get a stripped bolt out. I did finish it off with a chisel and some major whacks from a hammer though.