97 Cavalier Wheel Stud Replacement

Ian. It can be done without removing the hub. Grind one side of the stop boss flat, (part that will be on the inside of the hub), almost to the splines. That will give the stud enough room to go in.

Thanks for the tip daphpater. I ground one of the studs and it went in relatively easy. I then put a nut on the stud and began tightening it into place. When it started to get tight against the hub; I put a breaker bar on it and gave it one solid turn. The second turn the nut felt loose and got looser and looser. Somehow it must have gotten stripped. I now can not get the nut off of the stud. I think that I am going to have to remove the hub. I loosened the spindle nut, but the hub is still tightly attached. Next I will try to remove the hub and bearing assembly using a #55 Torx bit. Is there anything else that I am going to have to remove or should know?

Thanks, Ian

The hub flange is pressed into the bearing assembly, you'll need to remove the entire bearing if you want to work on it off the car.

If you're going to install another stud, put two washers on before you put the nut on, grease the washers, don't grease the threads. Make sure you're getting good quality nuts and studs.

You can still do this on the car. Cut the bad one off and get another one in. As aar4cuda69062 said, you'll want to put 2 or 3 washers on the stud. Also, put the lug nut backwards. Flat side in, tapered side out. You want a flat surface against another. The tapered side has a tendency to dig in into the washers. Wheel studs usually stick past the hub a little when installed. (not flush) Hence the washers. (spacers)

Thanks for the help guys. The reason I want to get the hub flange off of the car is because the nut is right tight up against the hub flange. There isn't enough room to get a saw in to cut the stud off. A buddy told me to try to pry the nut back with a screw driver and use a wrench to loosen it. The stripped threads might then catch, therefore loosening the nut. It sounds like working on this off of the car might quite a big job, so I will definitely try this first.

skian snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i7g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Go buy a Dremel and some heavy duty grit wheels.

It will take you a while and many grit wheels, but it's an easy way of cutting the stud off with minimal risk of damage to the hub. Grind 1/8" away from the hub so as not to nick it.

You have to remove the hub assembly from the steering knuckle. Here's a link for you:

You can get the fiberglass reinforced cut off wheels for the dremil tool that work 'really' well. They will cut the nut off a ball joint even.

Mike

Maybe you can use a sharp cold chisel and a heavy hammer and split the nut.I once replaced a broken wheel stud that was on an old vehicle I bought, many years ago.It was a piece of cake.I knocked out the broken stud with a hammer and punch and then I hammered in the new stud.Then I put the wheel back on and tightened everything up.It worked like a charm for me. cuhulin

Don't try to split the nut and get it off this way. Use the dremel tool with the fiberglass cut off wheel idea. The heavy blows of hammering the chisel could damage the bearings while the worst thing the cutoff wheel will do is make a dusty mess.

Steve B.