Thanks Maxw: I've looked carefully at the hex nut, which does have a length long enough that you would think it might have a locking nut; but I can't detect any seam or indication that there is a locking nut present. I've also looked carefully to see if the washer or nut has been "staked" thereby locking it in place. No evidence is present of a locking nut and no evidence of staking is present. I also looked at the equalizer of a 2002 S-10 which has the very same hardware and there was no staking or lock nut present on that vehicle either. This is day 3 of Pb blaster soaking and the nut is still frozen tightly on the threaded portion of the cable. I'll try to post a photo of the nut in a few minutes but i have trouble meeting the formatting and photo size requirements that this site specifies.