Masters of the Universe....

and I am apparently He-man. Here we have displayed not the first, but the second 6 pt socket that I broke today on "the bolt". I didn't even use a cheater pipe. All I used on this one was the 24" breaker bar I've been using on everything else. Now before you go yelling at me for buying crappy tools you need to know that both of these are/were Craftsman and as such are covered by a lifetime warranty. The down side is that these were the last 6 pt, 17 mm 1/2" drive sockets at Sears Grand (yes this "the bolt" is as big as the last one). So due to the fact that I had broken the first socket, taken a trip to sears for a replacement, and then proceeded to break the replacement; Chris Travis and I decided to remove the main drive shaft instead. I'm happy to say that in spite of it fighting us every step of the way no additional tools were harmed during it's successful extraction.



On a side note, I was also able to successfully remove the filler bolt from the differential, and was pleasantly surprised to find it quite full despite what appears to be a leaky oil seal by the drive shaft.

All this pain hasn't come without it's benefits. I've been watching much less TV, and I'm quickly learning the virtues of patience (whether I like it or not).

So the demon bolt still lives. If I ever get this thing off I think I'll cut it into tiny pieces and leave a piece with friends in every city I visit. Ooooh, demon bolt I like that. It's much more fitting. The demon bolt has taken 3 days of my life, and I want them back.