Area51 Project - Custom Tools- 12" x 41mm Deep Socket:

My father’s Honda Fourtrax 300 was in need of some repairs - rear brake shoes, rear wheel bearings, rear differential bearings and seals. To disassemble the rear end, the 41mm axle nuts need to be removed. There are 4 nuts in total – 2 lock nuts on each side of the brake panel and rear differential. These nuts are usually rusted on pretty good as they are exposed to the elements and can be difficult to remove.

I managed to loosen the nuts on the brake panel side after a week of applying penetrating oil and using a 4 foot cheater bar on a large adjustable wrench. It took a lot of force to loosen the lock nut; I even lifted the front wheels off the floor at one point! Rounding over the nut is also a good possibility when using an adjustable wrench, it really isn’t the right tool for the job.

The solution that the guys on ATV forums came up with to remove the nuts is using an impact wrench and a custom made deep impact socket.

They cut a 41mm impact socket in half and weld both ends to a 12” length of pipe. Troy took care of the fabrication work for me and did a great job welding up the new socket.

My Ridgid 1/2" impact wrench and the custom deep impact socket had no problem removing the axle nuts.

Another advantage of using this custom deep socket is that the 2 nuts can now be properly torqued when reassembling. The inside nut is torqued to 29ft lbs and the outside lock nut is torqued to 94 ft lbs.