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Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
- Mitchell Kapor
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You turned me on to this a while back and I just got my first, well actually 20th issue of this excellent magazine. Look forward to many more and also in receiving my Pi in the next few days.
Thanks Dave
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What an absolute pig of a day I have had.
After going round to pal from works house yesterday to see what tools he had to potentially remove my locking wheel nut that is mashed and subsequently giving up, I headed to the shops this morning to get some new drill bits and extractors etc.
Couldn't find any high cobalt bits or tungsten carbide so had to settle for titanium coated.
After what was hours of hunched over drilling a progressively larger hole in the knackered wheel nut (which is unfeasibly hardened, even a centre punch barely made an impression), I eventually got a decent size. I tried hammering in a hex/torx socket, and it did get a really good hold, but there was so much torque it started turning the bit inside its parent socket.
Next thing to try was the coarse thread extractor, after various attempts eventually got a really good bite on the wheel nut. Slowly increasing the force through the breaker bar, whilst still trying to keep it square the damn extractor shattered and yes it is jammed in the hole
I'm going to try and clear the hole tomorrow and then leave it till I get back from offshore in a couple of weeks then either order up some fancy bits and some hex-spline sockets (haven't found any in the UK yet only on Ebay from the US) etc.
If that doesn't work, then it will be trying to weld a nut on or just book it into a garage and let them do their damndest.
On top of that, I have a pile of 3 about 4 shipping blankets on top of the stored winter wheels, went to take one of them to kneel on, and found it was full of peanuts. Also, some of the others were also full of peanuts and really chewed up. Looks like a mouse had set up home and was stockpiling peanuts from the bag of bird/squirrel nuts I have in the garage. It would also explain why when I went to the bag at the weekend and lifted it up, it start spilling nuts on the floor. I thought I had just torn the bag with some timber that was against it.
Wish I could roll back to 24th December when I think the first damage to the wheel nut occurred and things might have been different now.
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I hope you have a better day tomorrow! And the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that. And.... well, you get the idea.
Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
- Mitchell Kapor
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On the positive side, this didn't happen to you on Groundhog Day[^]
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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That my friend is a very good way to look at it!
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That's why they call me Mr. Sunshine...wait a second...
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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I missed the start of the saga... what type of car is it? Is (was) the locking nut flush mounted to the rim?
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It is a MB C63, the locking nuts are recessed into the alloy (by about 1.5inch), are flat faced with a groove cut in them and also have a spinning ring round the edge. There is next to 0 space between them and the recess wall.
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Oh... you won't like my suggestion then!! (FWIW, I was going to suggest grinding the stud off from behind the hub.) Perhaps not with that car!!
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This is interesting. Are these wheel nuts genuine MB?
Peter Wasser
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa
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So are the nuts a pos or has human error played a part here?
Peter Wasser
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa
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I think that the bolts were originally over torqued or have seized over time. Then when I tried to release them using a standard MB tyre iron, it slipped and dogged the nut. Had I used a proper breaker bar I probably would have been OK.
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I'm not familiar with the vehicle, Dave, but is it possible to get to the backside of the studs? On US cars and all Asian vehicles I've seen, the studs are pressed into the axle plate. If there's any thread left, it's SOP to use a nut and puller, but in extreme cases, the studs can be driven out from behind. You'll probably have to drill out the part that engages the nut from the front in order to get the wheel off and expose the axle plate, but from there it should be reasonably easy to replace the studs.
Alternatively, you could drag it somewhere distant from your house, set fire to it, and file a stolen vehicle claim with the insurance company.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Easyouts seldome work, they often break leaving the very hard metal that it is made of behind. Which is wosre.
Weld something to it. A big nut often works well, if not a bolt. At the very least the heat will denature the steel rendering it drillable, and will break the bond with the hub making it easier to get off.
Of course you could just take off the upright and brake pipe and get another one from a breakers yard.
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Like Fat_boy says.
Fit a thin piece of rolled up brass sheet around the bolt/nut to protect the rim, and arc weld a large bolt onto it. The heat itself might also help to loosen the wheel.
The question is,is there enough space?
Is it really wheel nuts? I thought MB used wheel bolts
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Yes it a wheel bolt.
The generally adopted term whether it is a nut or bolt, is 'wheel nut'.
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It's one of these linguistic features you just have live in the country to know about.
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My brother had an Oldsmobile F-85 once.
When he was changing tyres on it, he had no problems on the first side, but on the other side the nuts where completely stuck.
So he put two pipes on the rim cross for leverage. When he had twisted off the bolt he realized it had a left hand threading.
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If that's reduced, I'm curious what the original price was.
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That's exactly what I was thinking. No wonder you don't see them everywhere!
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