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Got a turbo for nothing. It seemed like it was in good condition but I wanted to tear it down to clean and rebuild it anyways. So I start taking the water and oil lines off. I then take off the front and rear housings. It's getting dark so I loosen the compressor nut and then spin the wheel off. It is now dark so I spin it back down, put the nut back on HAND SNUG and left it for the day. I came back the next day, took off the nut and started to spin the compressor wheel off and it got really tight. I tried a little more and it got tighter and tighter...so I assume it is now cross threaded. How the heck does that happen?!
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I assume my options are to dremel the compressor wheel off and find a blow turbo to take the parts from, or build a hybrid turbo. (this is going to be a high compression "T2 swap" since the motor has just recently been rebuilt. Looking for mild performance increase. without sacrificing driveability and longevity)

 

The turbine shaft has a "piston ring" seal on it, so be careful when blindly tightening that nut back down. I don't know why it'd be so hard to loosen after tightening it down hand tight, but if you popped the shaft out a little and tightened it back down, then you probably didn't seat the piston ring seal and damaged either it (no big deal) or the shaft (good luck finding one). The compressor wheel is probably still ok, so don't go getting out the dremel.

My assumption is that a piece of debris got stuck in the threads somehow. Tighten it back down, clean the threads with a wire brush, and try again. Work it slowly. And post some pics once you get it apart.

If you can't get it off, you'll end up doing what I did... shearing the shaft

 

the aluminum wheel rests on a very light taper of the shaft, the compressor wheel can easily start to grab and stick.

sometimes i have to take a dead blow and tap the shaft through the CHRA to get it off. sounds scary to use on delicate parts but not so much if you tap it lightly and square.

usually i will try what Agreen mentioned first and put a little bit of oil down the shaft bore and twist it back on by hand and off again to see if it has loosened up.

 

This.

Remove the turbine housing and give the end of the shaft a nice tap with a deadblow hammer. The compressor has no threads, so you're just looking at friction holding it in place. The shaft will pop free from the CHRA if you tap it hard enough to dislodge the rear piston ring.

 

I thought he said the nut was getting tight when he was taking it off again. Now that sounded weird

Tap that joker out with a soft hammer and call it a day. Check out RotaryRocket88's thread on rebuilding the HT18TS. That one and Hypertek's thread on building a hybrid from cheap ebay turbos are really helpful.

 

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You guys make me want to cry. I am crying tears of joy! I will try this tomorrow. I'll drop some kroil around the shaft and give it a shot in the afternoon. I thought the compressor wheel had threads!