Hub nut removal

Indeed! Should be made undo-only as standard I reckon.

JB

My local tyre place uses the air spanner to do them up then puts a torque wrench on. Totally uselessly of course since the air wrench has gone waaaay past the torque wrench setting. Plus they didn't alter the torque wrench between cars.

If you've already got the other side off is there enough thread protruding on the stuck side to try screwing the nut on?

BTW, which side is stuck? If the nearside, that would be one with the LHT...

As seems to be the case with wheel nuts on some vans. The fact that these nuts are marked "L" doesn't stop some tyre fitters treating them as normal right hand threads.

Then how would you re tap spark plugs all cross-threadedy?

Bob

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A 3/4" sliding T bar is probably stronger than a hinged breaker bar.

Cic.

I would deploy all the strategies so far suggested in one operation:

1) Make sure it's the correct turning, clockwise or anticlockwise, for the undoing; 2) Penetrating un-seizing fluid, WD-40, PlusGas or whatever, liberally applied and left overnight if possible; 3) As Sandy Nut suggested, cool the central core from behind, even with ice packs, and heat the hub nut; 4) Use a T-bar and possibly with a steel pipe extension; and 5) Use a lifting jack trolley, or even a scissors jack, to lift the far end of the pipe extension arranged horizontally at right angle to the wheel axle.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk:

It is indeed the nearside, it definately has a normal anti-clockwise to undo thread. The weather has just got worse, rain, hail, snow, gale force winds, flooding, the four horsemen of the apocalypse just went by. Sod this, it's off to the garage for this car. :-)

Got access to a welder? Make your own nutty spec breaker bar...

I made mine from a 3' length of 1" solid steel pole (think it may have been a pole from a weights set - as in weight lifting weights)

I welded this to a 6" long impact grade 1/2" socket extension, with the female socket cut off.

You need a reasonably meaty welder to ensure the weld bites in enough. I used a 230 amp MIG on full power.

It has not yet failed to remove any bolt on any car, or broken / bent or otherwise shown any problems! It's worth using decent quality sockets however so they don't break!

Alan.

Best method i have found for getting hub nuts off is to get one person to put a stack of weight on the end of the bar while you clobber the bar with a lump hammer near the nut, in the anticlock direction obviously, the extra shock while under initial load seems to do the trick.

Would this be at all related to :

"I have to stick my neck out here and say i too hate bi-hex sockets. Right size or wrong they never fail to make a mess of the nut or bolt im working on even if i hold them perfectly on line etc"

:-)

FWIW on hub nuts : I borrowed a mate's 3/4" socket set last time I had to do one (some years back...). With a suitable scaffold pole it worked.

cheers, clive

Great stuff! Where did you source the 1" solid steel pole from?

No, well yes an no, ive never had a socket large enough for a hub nut that wasnt 6 sided. And they never fail either, even with abuse :)

Mine came from a weight-lifter friend, however any strong steel bar or pole would do.

Alan.

Lin Chung (lin.chung@the Water Margin.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Old torsion bar or antiroll bar would probably be the cheapest source - or any steel stockholder will have plenty of nice shiny new.

If you do end up drilling or Dremel'ing it off, it shouldn't be too difficult. Those nuts are made of soft s**te so that you can stake them at the top with a chisel. Which also makes them dead easy to round the edges of the hex off, which of course is just what you need when they can be bloody stiff. Bloody stupid design if you ask me.

"Alan" wrote in news:Yvi8h.21408$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe6-win.ntli.net:

I don't alas. I'm having one last try with the husband of a friend of my wife. I've met the chap a couple of times, and he's happy to help. He runs things like old XJS's etc and apparently has a garage full of heavy duty gear. I'm popping up to his place tomorrow night, otherwise it's throw everything at the garage, and give him a good Xmas :-)

Or drill a hole in a scaff tube & weld the socket into the hole.

I assume that you are turning in the right direction, hub nuts can be CW or ACW threads, dependent on the side of the vehicle. Jaymack