Front wheel hub assembly / bearing question

[lparsons]

I am replacing the other front hub assembly on my 95 gt (should've done 'em both at once, I know...). I meant to ask this question on the first replacement, but was in too much of a hurry.
When I removed the grease cap, the nuts that bolt the hub assembly to the spindle are encased by a six-sided cap that itself forms another nut around the original nuts. Last time, I just broke off the cap and worked with the nuts directly. Should I instead try to find a way to work with the cap? I couldn't find a socket anywhere that fit it, though I found a good one for the nuts.
Is it OK to just break off the cap? (this is of course not the grease cap, which I already popped off)

pictures to follow...

 

[lparsons]

Attached is an image of where I am on this process. The six-sided cap that I was referring to is in the center of the image, and inside of it are several smaller nuts that directly attach the hub assembly to the spindle.

 

[1991vert]

that nut will come off as one piece. it took me FOREVER to find the correct socket. i had a few set of 5lug spindles and i did exactly what you were going to do, which is break the "casing" off to expose 3-4 nuts (sounds bad ). anyways it's supposed to come off in one piece. i will see if i can find the socket size for you

 

[1991vert]

double post

 

[lparsons]

that nut will come off as one piece. it took me FOREVER to find the correct socket. i had a few set of 5lug spindles and i did exactly what you were going to do, which is break the "casing" off to expose 3-4 nuts (sounds bad ). anyways it's supposed to come off in one piece. i will see if i can find the socket size for you

I should add that in the first bearing replacement I did (passenger side), I broke off the casing and dealt with the individual nuts. This time I was working on the driver's side, and eventually decided to go ahead and break off the casing for this one as well, since I had already done that for the passenger side.

As for the size, does 38mm sound right? I know its bigger than 34mm, which is the size of the individual nuts. I searched sears.com for 38mm sockets, and it returned only a $600 set of S&K sockets for axle nuts. I also looked for 36mm, which returned only a few more options from S&K.

thanks

 

[95 Snake]

i think the one i have is a 36. it worked fine with a breaker bar

 

[lparsons]

Hmmm, that may be worth revising, then. Any idea where I could get that original cased nut? I could call around to some junk yards, but the yards out here in the Syracuse, NY, area all suck, IMHO. Anybody have a part number I could use to try a dealer?