Front Brakes or Wheel bearings...??

I've got the right front on my 134K mile 2004 torn apart now. We commute 122 miles round trip per day. Bearings started humming/howling about 3k miles ago. Bought both side hub assemblies (Timkin) for 250 bucks.

Right now I'm stopped because the spindle nut is a real bugger.

It's a special tapered 12 point (spline nut) with extended flange that is intentionally dented into the axle keyway slot. It's designed for a single usage and must be replaced upon reassembly.

My 30 mm Craftsman 12 pt socket engages the taper on the nut more than half way onto the flanks so I thought I'd try to use my impact driver and spin it off. No joy.

I then ground a drift punch tip into a bit of a duck bill to lift the dent out of the axle slot and shot some oil into the threads to help it along. I've been standing on the breaker bar using bouncing technique to try to loosen it. No joy. So I'm typing this. Have you gotten into yours yet?

 

The nut is one-time-use, and according to the shop manual, a SST is required to unstake the nut. I suppose a small punch might be able to do the same job as the SST