Post #352775 by Mai Tai on Thu, Jan 3, 2008 3:49 PM

Success!!! :D I finally got that lug nut off the wheel today. And, man, let me tell you, it wasn't easy! I had to start working on it at 8:30am, in order to beat the upcoming rain storm, and I didn't get the lug nut off until 11:00am. It was a frustrating process, especially with the cold pre-storm wind kicking up, and laying on the cold damp ground was making me cranky. Coco Loco took a turn at it, and hammered out her frustrations with a small sledge and chisel, and was able to get a good starter chunk off, and that helped a lot. I had to use a combination of the nut cracker, drill bit, cutting wheel, torch, and small sledge and chisel to get that sucker off! As we were putting the last of the tools away, the rain started, so talk about finishing in the nick of time!!!

To be honest, I almost gave up - that one section that was starting to peel off like an orange peel looked promising, but it was stubbornly stuck, and was the last section to come out! I was getting frustrated, and was going to throw in the towel, but within 5 minutes that section finally loosened up and popped out, and voila - the wheel then came off freely. The lug stud is toast though, the threads are pretty jacked up.

Anyways, I did also post on www.thesamba.com, and they were pretty helpful, but the advice wasn't too much more than what was offered here. I did learn a few things, though. I learned that the reason why the drum wouldn't pull off the spindle was because I have front wheel disc brakes, not drum brakes! Duh! I got a good chance to look in there, and sure enough, there were the rotors! I would have had to remove the calipers as well to get that entire wheel assembly off, and there's not enough room to remove the caliper from the rotor while the wheel is still on - so that method wouldn't have worked anyways. I also learned that if I had a larger air compressor tank, then I could probably get that lug nut off with an air impact wrench (a definite possibility in the future). I also would have been able to remove it easier if I had a good torch (unlikely option for the near future). The next best option would have been using an angle grinder, but I didn't have one of those either! If I did, I could have grinded off one side of the nut, or cut off the entire lug stud with the lug nut attached. Had I known, I would have asked Santa for an angle grinder for Christmas.

I already had a drill and a good drill bit set, but I had to buy a chisel, a small sledge hammer, the cutting wheel, that nut cracker tool, eye goggles, butane torch, and PB Blaster. If you factor in the cool low profile and hi-lift floor jack that I got for my birthday, and a pair of hi-lift SUV jackstands to get that sucker high enough in the air, plus a nice lug wrench, then yeah, it ended up being an expensive venture, and it probably would have been more cost effective just to tow the bus over to a tire shop, or have a mechanic come over to remove the lug nut. But it's good to have the floor jack and jack stands, I'll get more use out of them when I'm wrenching on my muscle car, or doing an oil change, etc. I also needed a good set of safety goggles, so I'll also get good use out of those too. Good to have the PB Blaster around too, and I know I'll use the butane torch for various things around here, whether it's plumbing or aging bamboo. Hopefully I'll get some use out of the chisel and small sledge, cutting wheel, and nut cracker tool.

At least I can look at it like this: if I had paid someone to fix it, it would have been done right away, but then I'd be out the money with a fixed wheel but no tools to show for it. Time is money, but I did learn some stuff, and could probably tackle this again if need be. However, this doesn't factor in my aching finger that I bashed fairly hard at the end of the ordeal. :o