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Topic: Frozen inner stud (Read 740 times) previous topic - next topic

Frozen inner stud

Pulling the duals off and one inner stud/nut won't budge, been working on it for a couple of hours now, 78" cheater no go, supposedly 1400 ft/lb impact no go, I drilled a small hole thru the middle of the square shaft and have injected pb blaster inside, hit it with a heat gun no go. What next, cut the square end off and just start chiseling a cut groove to spit the nut. Mapp gas tourch, as I don't have my cutting torch here? Smacked it a couple of times with a big ball peen. Anybody been there done that?

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Old phart phred –
Pulling the duals off and one inner stud/nut won't budge, been working on it for a couple of hours now, 78" cheater no go, supposedly 1400 ft/lb impact no go, I drilled a small hole thru the middle of the square shaft and have injected pb blaster inside, hit it with a heat gun no go. What next, cut the square end off and just start chiseling a cut groove to spit the nut. Mapp gas tourch, as I don't have my cutting torch here? Smacked it a couple of times with a big ball peen. Anybody been there done that?
Don't make it harder on you by cutting the drive square off. Heat is the answer, I  don't know if Mapp will do it  though.  I have used oxyacetylene to heat those up enough to break the  lock.  The hardest ones require heating then cold water  a couple of times.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #3 –
Did someone prior to you getting the coach put the wrong thread direction stud on? LH  instead of RH or the opposite? Maybe only that one stud because they had one handy?

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #4 –
Outer nut was a lefty

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #5 –
Was going to say the same thing as Nitehawk,try and find some Kroil,comes in a orange and black spray can,see if one of the
nuts you took off will fit on those threads if you can.May be able to get the Kroil at Fastenal or Grainger.Walmart has dry ice,may be worth a try.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #6 –
Like Chuck says here, Mapp might not do the trick so Oxy/Acy may need to be rented. Hot/cold plus penetrating Liquid Wrench or ATF/Acetone mix applied several times. Cutting head on the torch (don't use the Oxy lever) puts the hottest flame in the shortest time on the stud.

Pierce

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #7 –
While you may be in line for a new stud and nut(s), Occam's Razor still applies.

What you need is heat.  Lots of heat.  Go get your cutting torch and the head of your choice an heat a strip alongside the threaded part red.  In bright sunshine dull red, indoors, cherry red.  Then use the impact wrench.  It takes time for heat to travel and you want the nut bigger than the stud. Be careful near the wheel, any heat that transfers into the wheel will make the aluminum expand more than the steel.

FWIW I WILL have the correct torque wrench before a tire guy touches my wheels.  The last thing I want to hear, and that I've heard in the past is,"You won't need to worry about re-torquing those!"

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #8 –
You can find deals on torque wrenches on Ebay if you keep looking,bought a brand new proto for $165 a while back,works
great,even had the red case.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #9 –
Phred, have patience keep working with it. As long as the square head is still there keep using your heat and penetrating oil. Might try drilling a small hole in the square end to get some penetrating oil on the inner threads. Good luck.
        As a side note if one wants lug nuts torqued, one needs to carry their own torque wrench. Most tire shops don't own one, not to mention a road service truck.
Good luck getting things apart.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #10 –
Yes I drilled a small hole thru the center of the square shank to get some pb blaster into the threads, maybe it will work after 20 hour soak. I got lots of patience.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #11 –
If this is a case hardened piece of metal case hardening is done for prevention of wear and distortion.
Normally the core is drawn to attain a certain tensile strength requiring a certain type of metal such as E8620-H bearing quality steel.
Is it possible to drill down the center of the stud after cutting off the case hardened end? Then carbide tipped drills until close to actual O.D. (outside diameter) of the stud. Then heat applied down thru the hole and out comes the stud. (hopefully)

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #12 –
Inner nuts was easy to drill and I got really long spiral cuttings with only a couple of squirts of lube. Cut like mild steel.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #13 –
We/I used to cut E-8620-H bearing quality steel when I was head tool designer at Mercury Marine in FDL, WI. Lot of it used in their outboards. One place in particular was the amalgamated Stainless Steel  and E-8620-H propshafts. The two materials were friction welded together. Try removing the roll up of two materials where they were pushed together!! SS isticking out of the lower unit with the prop on and the E-8620 inside the lower unit with the clutch shifting on the E-8620. The gears were also E-8620-H  steel.
Drill chips were long and stringy and took quite a bit of bending back and forth until the metal would fatigue enough to break.
Constant warning to operators was never grab the chips with bare hands or while piece was still being machined.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #14 –
Success after 3 hours of heating with the mapp gas several tries and hitting with the impact wrench and pb blaster And no luck.  Decided to fire up the coach with all the other tires securly chocked up  built enough air pressure to Release the brakes and get the offending lug nut to a position where the breaker bar socket was at a pure tangent and bounced on the 78" cheater. Until a loud pop was heard, and it broke free and spun off.

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #15 –
Next time either use a longer cheater bar or gain some pounds. As I recall from our meeting a year ago, you are a skinny fart compared to me. :))  :))  :))  >:D

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #16 –
Lost 15 lbs on the foretravel diet (in, out, under, on top of coach - lots of coach work (exercise)). Tire/wheel weighs more than I do.  78" cheater bar was hooked up to the us made socket set that is on clearance at menards.  Kudos to this masterforce (looks incredibley like the old craftsman stuff) breaker bar as it survived this punishment.


https://www.menards.com/main/tools-hardware/hand-tools/mechanic-tool-sets/masterforce-reg-3-4-drive-sae-12-point-mechanics-tool-set-13-piece/mf19301/p-1444428596328.htm

Thanks guys for all of the suggestions.  Tonight I will check the condition of the offending stud for length and flaws, then move to the passenger side duals.
 

Re: Frozen inner stud

Reply #17 –
Use a never seize type product on clean studs and reduce the torque correspondingly. You won't have the trouble next time.

Pierce