Any suggestions as to where I might locate the special wrench used to remove the wheel bearings for an XK8?

 

Hi Gator,

Too bad you live so far away. I could rent you the entire kit I put together for the job (including 3/4" impact wrench and 3/4" torque wrench). But the shipping would horrendous.

In place of the official tool you're looking for ($$$) some of us have found success using a 12 point 2" Craftsman socket. I further improved on that idea by grinding off about 1/8" of the socket to eliminate all the chamfering.

Easiest way to unscrew the nut is to lay your tire flat on the ground, outside down. Then place the hub assembly on it, just inserting the lug bolts into the wheel holes. Now stand on the tire, press the socket very firmly down onto the ABS nut, and impact wrench the crap out of it until it comes loose.

Getting 220 ft-lbs of torque back onto the nut is another adventure unto itself. I drilled the necessary holes into a piece of 2x6 (2x8?), clamped that into a mongo sized vise, insrted the hub assembly into it, had someone stand on the work bench pressing down on the socket to make sure it stayed in place, and made an extension for the torque wrench. We still moved the work bench right at the end!

Don't be afraid to wail the crap out of you ball joints to pop them free. I had to hit my lower joint REALLY hard quite a few times before it popped.

Good luck!

 

ebay.co.uk, about $50 all in from the right seller.

search for abs rotor socket as that's what they call it.

Look in the general help secion. I put all the details in a posting there.