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Stubborn Wheel Nuts.
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:11 pm
by iandromiskin
I have quite a few stubborn wheel nuts that I need to remove from a car, but they are locked on solid despite the use of an air wrench thing. I've sprayed them with a lot of WD40 and will leave it for a day or two before trying again, but does anyone have any suggestions as to what, or what not, to do next ??? (P.S. I don't have the ability to heat up the nuts in case someone was going to suggest it)
Re: Stubborn Wheel Nuts.
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:20 pm
by ASL642
Try Plusgas - stronger than WD40. Leave it to soak for a day or so.
Re: Stubborn Wheel Nuts.
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:05 pm
by ian.mcdougall
Put all wheel nuts back on and work on the stubborn ones first use a breaker bar as unless you have a good air pressure or an expensive air wrench (is it the impact type air wrench) it will not be a success. You can use soldering torch to get some heat to the nuts but may damage paint on wheels with heat.If all else fails drill off nuts and replace studs. Replace studs any way as they are probably stretched
Ian
Re: Stubborn Wheel Nuts.
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:48 pm
by iandromiskin
Ok ..... Good news and bad news....
The good news is that I managed to get all of the wheel nuts loose about half an hour ago,but the bad news is that i rounded one of them in the process so what started of life as an 18mm hexangonal nut is now an 17.5mm round nut
So the next a question is how on earth do I remove it from the wheel ???
Re: Stubborn Wheel Nuts.
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:49 pm
by PSL184
Use a nut splitter as its scrap now anyway....
Re: Stubborn Wheel Nuts.
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:40 am
by bmcecosse
Stillson wrench. Of course - it wasn't an 18mm nut anyway to start with! Could try an 11/16 AF socket on it.
Re: Stubborn Wheel Nuts.
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:18 pm
by chickenjohn
iandromiskin wrote:Ok ..... Good news and bad news....
The good news is that I managed to get all of the wheel nuts loose about half an hour ago,but the bad news is that i rounded one of them in the process so what started of life as an 18mm hexangonal nut is now an 17.5mm round nut
So the next a question is how on earth do I remove it from the wheel ???
Get some Whitworth sockets as the wheel nuts are close to 18mm, but not quite, it is actually 3/8 Whitworth. Use of the proper sized Whitworth tools rather than getting by with a mix of metric and AF is my top tip for avoiding rounded nuts on your Minor!! You can good quality 2nd hand Whitworth tools cheaply from Ebay or car boot/ autojumbles.
In addition to the above, one of my favourite nut undoing tips is to use an Irwin bolt grip
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... t-grip-set , these reverse spiral flute tools grip even rounded off nuts and bolts and undo them. Saved me a lot of bother over the years.