EGR nut - how to loosen the stuck EGR nut on exhaust manifold

[davidrberg]

EGR nut - how to loosen the stuck EGR nut on exhaust manifold
1994 Pathfinder SE.
How to loosen the EGR nut on the exhaust manifold; that is almost welded in place.
Two issues here: 1) how to grasp the 6 sided nut securely and 2) how to get enough torque on the nut to get it to loosen.
To solve the first issue you can either buy a very high quality crowfoot socket wrench or make one yourself.
I choose the later as finding a metric crowfoot wrench that actually works is expensive and time consuming (I gave up after searching the web for several hours). Buy a 24 mm (huskey $5.99) combination wrench. Use a Dremel diamond cutter blade to remove two of the notches on the socket combination wrench.
To solve the second issue I used a steel bike cable and a big 2” 4 ft long wooden dowel.
Attach one end of the cable to the (custom made) 24 mm crowfoot using duct tape (i used the good stuff 3M). Attach the other to a 4 foot long 2" dowel by winding it around the dowel ( a 2x4 will probably work just as well). The purpose of the big dowel attached to the wrench with the steel cable, is to use leverage to get enough torque on the nut to loosen it.
When you are trying to loosen the nut, make sure one of your buddies is holding the wrench on the nut so it does not slip off.
Yes MacGyver would be proud.

[lexcrob]

I need pictures of this.

I would have grabbed a torch and air hammer. Problem over whether I needed new parts or it came off.