It’s probably to late now, but a can of ‘fix a flat’ may have saved you a lot of trouble. At least until you felt better and could get it to someone that had the tools to pull the wheel.
While it can be a drag to find yourself with a flat tire, it can turn into a major pain in the ass to have a lug nut seize up on you. Been there. I tried the breaker bar, the liquid wrench, heat, and finally the chisel. Man, the chisel is really a last resort. It’s very hard to position it properly and get a good swing at it.
I ended up cutting it off with a torch and replacing the stud.
With that said, in all respect, I’m curious about a few things.
The tire iron was a used as a breaker bar? How did you manage that? Can you describe the tire iron?
:dubious:
I’ve been working on cars for a long time. I have never split a socket.
And a chisel shatered? Sure you won’t using a wood chisel? Did it have a plastic handle?
With that said, If there is anything left of the lugnut, go to NAPA and buy a socket made for an impact wrench and use that with a breaker bar. You will not split that socket. With any luck there is still enough of the lugnut left to get a bite on it.
Or like I said at first, a can of fix a flat (read the instructions, you will still need to put air in the tire).
Nope. When I discovered the tire was flat (as I was backing out of the driveway) it was off the rim. No idea of what had caused the tire to go flat as I had checked it the night before and it was fine.
I’ve got a cheater pipe that I slid over the end of the tire iron and the socket at the end of the tire iron split.
I’ve split 4 now.
It was a wood chisel, but it was the only thing I had handy. My decent chisels were at work, and I didn’t feel like walking the four miles to get them. Even using a decent chisel on it a few days later didn’t make much of dent in the damned thing.
There’s not much left of the lugnut. Roughly half of it is gone down to the bottom ring (i.e. only one side of the nut is more or less intact) and the other side of it is chewed up pretty badly. To be honest, I have no idea how the thing’s still on there. I even tried jacking up the car and whaling on it with my cheater pipe, thinking that might jar it loose, but nothing. I picked up some center drills at work today, and I’ve got an index of cheapo bits that I don’t care if they get ruined or not, so tomorrow, if I’m up to it (I plan on crawling into bed here in a few minutes) I’m going to try drilling the bitch off. If that doesn’t work, well, I’ve got this big hunk of magnesium in my toolbox at work. . .
Huh. That’s pretty bad. I was thinking that you had a socket wrench/socket-breaker bar on the lugnut and somehow used the tire iron as your cheater pipe.
My :dubious: was directed at the superglue. Where you running a fever?
I’ve always used Craftsman tools for mechanical stuff (not construction). I’ve lost more of them than I’ve broken.
I don’t doubt it. I’m going to get an air chisel for my compresor, just to have. They aren’t that expensive.
Is It a 5 bolt wheel? I would feel pretty comfortable with 4 holding on a 5 bolt wheel but uneasy about 3 holding on a 4 bolt wheel.
Do you have, can you borrow a small angle grinder? You should be able to grind down one side of the lugnut to the bolt threads. This will take a little time, but I think it would be a hell of a lot easier than drilling it. At that point, if you have effectively turned the lugnut from an ‘O’ to a ‘C’ a wack or ten with a chisel should pop it off.
A lot of the above recomendation depends on the shape of the wheel. You may not be able to get a grinder in there. And you will need eye protection to do this. And it does produce a lot of heat. Plus your very own 4th of July show.
I had to cut off a lug nut before. It’s hard to get a 4" angle grinder in there, but a dremel works. The trick is to use the reinforced grinding wheels, not the cheap thin cut off wheels. You’ll break a ton of those, but the reinforced wheel will hold up.
Yes, but I thought that the superglue might enable the socket to hold on just long enough to break the nut free. Unfortunately it didn’t work. I have to admit, though, that it was quite a sight watching the extension on the socket and the wratchet twist as I tried to get the nut loose.
I’ve got a set of Husky tools. Not exactly bottom of the barrel Wallyworld specials, but certainly not top quality either.
Yeah, I hope to have a decent set of tools one of these days.
Yeah, it’s a five bolt wheel, and I’ve got extra studs laying around here, so if I’m able to wrestle the wheel off and it’s not too much trouble I can replace the stud.
Sadly, I can’t get in there with a grinder of any size, unless I want to grind off a good chunk of the wheel as well. Having ground a fair bit of aluminum parts in my day (I’m a machinist in a foundry and the wheel’s aluminum) I think I’ll pass on that.
Tell me about it. I’ve set myself on fire so many times now that when someone says, “Do you smell something burning?” the first thing I do is check myself, before looking around to try to identify the source. Dag Otto, unfortunately, I can’t get the arbor out of the Dremel to use one of the grinding bits I have, so I’m stuck using the cut off wheels.
Ha. I’ve set my self on fire twice once welding, another time painting. I had a propane heater going, and a ‘wipe up’ rag hanging out of my back pocket. Got a little too close to the heater.
brain - ‘Something smells funny’
enipla - ‘looks around’
brain - ‘your butt is decidedly hotter than it should be’
enipla - ‘that’s odd, the heater is over there and FIRE FIRE I’M ON FIRE’
I was by myself and I remember that very conversation with myself. I yelled fire out loud.
