When John first started the call, I envisioned that he was working on a motor cycle because their fasteners always seem to strip out the drive. One tool that seems to work quite well is an impact driver i.e. the driver turns when the end is hit with a hammer. The bolt or screw is driven axially as torque is applied. This tool will usually remove phillip head screws that have been torqued to spec on a motorcycle. So I think Tom and Ray need to demonstrate the use of the impact driver to John. I’ll have to assume that the mass of the attached space vehicle is adequate to buck the impact of a 2# hammer.
Regarding the high loosening torque observed by John, the high vacuum in space plus the wide thermal cycles experienced by any space vehicle would cause any threads to semiweld themselves. Therefore, even if the fastener was torqued to spec on the ground, it would require more torque to remove in space after all adsorbed air and oil has vaporized into space from the threads. Also the vacuum of space would make it difficult to get WD-40 or Liquid Wrench to work as they would probably boil off before then wicked into the threads.
Keep us posted on any answers from NASA