That makes great sense sled dog, probably why I didn't think of it at the time. As far as someone hitting it, I'll never forget the mechanic at a shop I used to work at. We had to drop a 3rd member on a rockwell axle, and one of the axle shafts was stuck. Still had the tires on, and he grabbed his little 3 lb hammer and held it in there on the shaft. I didn't think that looked like such a great idea and told him so. "shut up and swing the hammer, don't hit me". Third or fourth hard whack, I slipped off after the hit, he hopped around yowling and cussing me to no end. Long handles are great.
That reminds me of one of my stories. Paul Dorr was a long time mechanic in the neighborhood. Bout 10 years ago, I hadda change the tires on my dually isuzu NPR, I tried every which way, to, but 3 or 4 studs just wouldn't budge. Called Paul up, and asked him if he had any ideers about how to get them moving. He said yeah, I got this ole contraption we usedta use on the busses that they service fer the county. So, I hopped in the truck, and brought the 3/4" drive 40 mm socket I told him I had. He pulls out this contraption, that looked like a combination of a jack stand, and 4-way wrench... Had a 3/4 drive extension, extending through the center of the 4way looking part, and instead of being 4 ends, with various size wrenches, it had 2 ends, one that looks like an egg shaped weight of about maybe a a half pound, or so. The other end was a striking surface, 180º away from the egg. The jack lookin part was a little 3 legged affair, , that the 3/4" extension, fixed in the top, and the general ideer is to whack the strikin surface of the contraption, downward, and the weight would act like a flywheel, and help turn the nut in question, off.
Now a word about Paul's shop, well worn cinderblock building, with small bays. I had backed in, as much to get out of the july sun, as well as to get closer to the tools. Paul was prolly 65ish, at the time, getting ready to retire soon.
As to condition of the tool, it was prolly close to paul's age, only it had spent its career bein hit with a sledge hammer. To say pretty rickety was optimistic. There was another piece to it, that had been busted off'n it, making it a 2 man job, and guess who the other man was?
So here I am, holding a shop rag, applying a slight upward pressure to the egg, while Paul swings a 10 lb hammer that looks like a circus tent stake driver about a foot from my head. As we we finished up on the right side (last swing), I said to Paul, "Paul if you hit me on the head wif that hammer, strike me dead center, I don't wanna be no demmycrat!"
He busted out laughin so hard along wif me, we hadda take a 10 minnit break, afore tryin t'other side...