Stuck, Damaged Lug Nut

On teh way to a cruise last night, the right front brake on my 89 Shelby Dakota began to drag. I drove a few miles until I had a safe place to pull over and trhe brake was smoking. I drove a few more miles to get to a parking lot to my son could meet me with my trailer so I could hall the cripple back home. When I got it home I attempted to pull the wheel. The first thre came with varying degress of effort, The fourth was beyond the capability of my 500 ft/lb impact wrench and required a breaker bar. The last one would not come. I used by extractor sockets.

My 3/4 inch socket (correct from my lugs) just shredded before I snapped the very thick extension bar. I have 5/8 extractor hammered on and it is biting, but my impact wrench won't budge it. I am afraid of breaking more tools doing it by hand. My nut splitter does not fit due to wheel shape/clearance. Any ideas. I am trying to be careful because I cannot replacer the wheels which are on the Shelby. They were used on 1500 trucks and that is it.

3/4" drive breaker bar, and break the wheel stud.

You've got to get the wheel off, and you can pretty reasonably figure you're going to be replacing some wheel studs. Sacrifice the stud and save the wheel.

In reply to foxtrapper:

I am not against breaking the stud. The problem is that the only socket which will now grip the nut is an extractor. It is not that deep so I need an extension bar. Th keep breaking the end of the bar which goes into the sockt. Very frustrating.

Shotgun..

Also, your "T" "H" and "E" buttons on your keyboard are acting up.

Which does indicate cheap junky extensions. Get a good one.

But, it's also pretty worthwhile to get hold of a 3/4" drive set for jobs like this. If they have a socket small enough for the wheel nut. HF has a set on sale right now for something like $35. Where a 1/2" drive will flex and defeat you, a 3/4" drive set makes the fastener flex, and break.

is the nut sunk down deep inside the wheel?

if it's not too deep, put a socket that fits the nut nice and tight and breaker bar on it, with the swivel part of the breaker bar arranged so that the bar swings side to side.. with the bar sticking straight out, jump on the end of the bar to snap the stud off..

In reply to Trans_Maro: i know

Been there on a Fox Mustang. After a few unsuccessful attempts with Horrible Freight, Craftsman, etc sockets, I called a buddy who brought over a Snap-On flank drive socket and Snap-On breaker bar. We got it with a bit of struggle. I also thought the nut was beyond hope, but the Snap-On gripped it like it was fine.

Get the proper tools and it will come off. I bought a set of Snap-On flank drive sockets shortly after.

In reply to foxtrapper:

One Craftsman, one Snap On.

Air hammer and chisel--cut the nut?

Don't do what I witnessed a couple years ago at Mid-Ohio--several guys ended up cutting the wheel on their Spec Miata. Took 'em about 4 hours, with a crowd of about 40 drunks watching and cheering...

If you are handy with a torch, or know someone, its actually pretty easy to sort of melt/cut the nut off without doing any damage.

But you do need to be handy with a torch or it could get ugly.

Center punch the stud (as closely as you can), then drill out the center, at least as deep as the length of the lugnut. This should weaken the stud enough that it will snap off (more easily).

erohslc wrote: Center punch the stud (as closely as you can), then drill out the center, at least as deep as the length of the lugnut. This should weaken the stud enough that it will snap off (more easily).

^^^ X2

erohslc wrote: Center punch the stud (as closely as you can), then drill out the center, at least as deep as the length of the lugnut. This should weaken the stud enough that it will snap off (more easily).

The larger the hole the better, all of the torque resisting strength is in the perimeter of the stud so drilling out the center doesn't effect the strength much. Tried a torch/dry ice yet? torch the nut and dry ice the wheel/stud if you can.

In reply to slopecarver:

I agree with the heat and cool suggestion, Oxy/Ace would defiantly do the trick here. Even with just weld/braze tips you could heat the stud/bolt mess up to around melting point and let it cool down quick spray it with water even. That steel will turn completely brittle, you could twist off the stud with some pliers. ( I just did this the other day by mistake, I didn't keep the heat on some 3/8ths steel rod I had just welded long enough, it bent like a coat hanger with just my fingers pushing on it) Or you could burn through it the whole mess with a cutting head, small tip and a steady hand.

In general if you have any stuck hardware (aside from fuel lines) you can spray it down with PB blaster and then heat it up with a propane torch and get anything loose, it's just a matter of getting the whatever hot enough.

To lessen the chance of wheel damage I'd go with drilling the stud.

Center punch and drill into the lug and as far into the stud as you can. Try to get at least as deep as the lug nut. Make successive passes Increasing the size of the drill as far as you can. Obviously if you get big enough the lug/stud will just come off. However if you are limited to the drill size or the bits get dull and limit the amount of drilling you can do add heat in to the hole you have drilled. A brazing tip works very well for this especially if you don't want to damage the finish on the wheels. Add heat till center glows / sparkles. Should come rite off and or the stud will snap as the heating will change the temper of the stud..

If you don't have and O/A torch Map gas works well just get a small tip. It takes longer but should get it hot enough. I actually use my map gas torch on 90 percent of the things I do. It is much easier to take out instead of lugging around the tanks of the O/A setup.

Drill it. But....

If you have hardened studs and the drill keeps snapping or slipping... take a piece of something steel (another nut, 3/4 thick wall tubing with a bolt welded in it, an impact socket...) and weld it to the nut. While it is still smoking hot from the weld - slip a jack handle over the breaker bar and have someone lean on it hard to load it up - then take a 5lb hammer and hit the berkeleyer as hard as you can get a clean shot at it. Either the stud will break, or the nut will come loose. It never fails.

Curmudgeon wrote: To lessen the chance of wheel damage I'd go with drilling the stud.

X2. Did it on a 1994 S10. Spent 1/2 a Saturday messing with this.

I dunno if you can get to the back side of the rotor, but if you can maybe you can drill the head off the stud, then drive it out with a punch from the back side. It may be possible to remove the caliper and the spindle nut, then remove the whole rotor/wheel/etc and now you have easy access to the rear of the rotor. That would really lessen the chance of damaging the wheel.

Can you just pull the rotor and wheel as one?

If so, pull them off together and drill the head of the wheel stud from the back side/inside of the rotor. Might even be able to pound the stud out from in there if the head is drilled/ground off. Less chance of ruining the expensive wheel if you work from inside the rotor.

Luck !

In reply to TeamEvil:

The caliper gets in the way.

Breaker-bar idea not working either. I do not want to cut the nut.

+1 to the drilling the nut.