It seems to me that the easiest path to being able to remove the rear studs (without drilling the backing plate for the E brake) is:
remove the brake caliper/rotor,
disconnect the tie rod end,
disconnect wheel speed sensor,
disconnect the upper control mounting bolts,
disconnect ebrake cable,
disengage from the driveshaft from the hub and
pop off the lower ball joint - unthread the nut til it’s level with top on stud, I used an air hammer to coax it apart.

At this point the knuckle/hub with the upper control arm can be removed entirely - this allows access to get to the hub bolt behind the lower ball joint, remove hub, pop out the studs. Again, the air hammer was used to coax the studs loose from the hub.

The new studs were positioned on the hub and a stack of washers were on the other side of the flange with a regular nut. I used my air impact wrench on the “gentle” setting to seat the studs (mostly) and seated them firmly when I torqued up the lug nuts.


2006 z51 M6

 

That is the process. Lots of you tube videos on the process.

you need to purchase a new axel nut as they are one time use. If there is any rust on the axle shaft spline you will probably be beating on that nut to get the axel out anyway.

 

Lover hub bearing bolt is behind the ball joint nut and stud. You will need to separate the the knuckle from the ball joint to access the bolt. Use some red loctite on the hub bearing bolts and axle nuts. ;

 

Getting proper torque on the lower ball joint, hub bolts and the caliper mounting bolts (Z06 calipers) is very difficult.
I’m looking for suggestions ❤️

With the upper control arm bolts installed and knuckle on the lower control arm ball joint stud and the tie rod installed (all finger tight, not torqued) I was able to float the assembly up enough to aid in getting the lower hub bolt torqued to 96 foot pounds. The other two hub nuts were no problem. I did apply blue Loctite to the hub mounting bolts.

On the lower ball joint I couldn’t get a torque wrench on the nut for the initial set before the 180 deg pull - since the stud was spinning I had to use a 6mm Allen wrench to hold it which necessitated an open end wrench until it was sufficiently tight to stop spinning. I used my 16” breaker bar and pulled it to my 90% of max pull (that would be on the threshold of sweating, before profanity initiates). 😜

The caliper mounting bolts are 129 foot pounds. I cannot get my big torque wrench in there to tighten those bolts, the car is not high enough off the ground for the torque wrench to clear/swing low - I’m thinking that my option is to put blue Loctite on the threads and use my impact wrench on a medium setting? It should be north of 100 foot pounds. Or I get my 16” breaker bar and go to 95% pull (sweating and mild profanity)?

thank you!
Greg

 

Without tearing up the wheel hub bearings, really need to pull the hub so you can back up the hub flange itself, to drive out the old studs from it.
Either that, or use a tool that is putting pressure to the back of the flange/end of the studs to drive the studs out that way: without putting pressure blows to the wheel hub bearings.

And no heat on the flange, or studs, since it going to not play well with the bearing seals.



If you are running wheel spacers, there is another attack plan if the studs are just a hint too short to get enough wheel bolt threads, and that is extended thread wheel nuts isntead.

 

Here’s my super easy stress free SAFE method for removing wheel studs in seconds.