Still can't understand how this happen or why he didn't remove the cable from the housing prior to attempting to loosen the axle nut. Lucked out this time....amazed that the speedo gear drive didn't get damaged.
Yup it can indeed be hard to understand how a lot of stuff happens; namely the stuff that happened when we are not around to see. As the Chief Engineer on board a large complex vessel I long ago learned that you can't oversee every breakdown and thusly you can't be overly critical of the repair performed by others unless it was grossly incompetent. Yours could be an inexperienced "Tech" who just never thought of disconnecting the cable beforehand or it could very well be that he never planned on disconnecting the cable in the first place as there is no absolute reason to do so. Again I'll say that the previous "Tech" could have set the axle nut to the axle with an impact gun which would have been a mistake as there is no reason to tighten the stink out of fasteners that set with shoulders such as an axle to axle nut which is held in position by the pinch bolts on each side of the fork tubes. While I have impact guns here on board ship and at home they are one of my least used tools as I would much rather feel things such as thread resistance etc through my hands and as needed though a PROPERLY sized torque wrench.
Another point to mention to all interested is that you should not rely on the pinch bolts to hold either the nut or axle still while you attempt to loosen as if the fixed part begins to spin you can cause galling or damage to that part; one should always use a back-up wrench when breaking or setting the axle or any other part that is held in place by a pinch bolt. That and clean, polish and lube these metal to metal slip fit parts namely those made of alum and steel to prevent corrosion seizing.