Trick to removing wheels?

[sootman73]

Do NOT use a torch on the wheels. Please see the below video on tire pyrolosis. This is why big rigs tires explode when they ride their brakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBUVzgCHHuA

you aren't using a torch on the wheels just the lug nuts. the heat is not gonna be there long enough to even heat up the wheel.

do one lug nut at a time:
1. heat the lug nut up almost red hot
2. throw the impact on there as fast as possible and buzz them off.
3. throw the lug nut in a cooling bucket so you don't accidentally burn your self (put new lug nuts on so dont worry about warping the old nuts)
4. repeat for the remainging lug nuts.

with this procedure you will not heat up the wheel any more than if you applied the brakes with a large load in tow.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Agreed with Ben, I have to use the hot wrench quite more often that I'd like to, and if you are careful heat has not time to transfer to places where it can cause harm. I've seen cars with dragging brakes get them wheels a whole lot hotter that I ever got them even with the lug nuts glowing quite nicely.

And the last time you had these wheels off was.... when? Sounds like Tyranasaurus instead of Taurus' were on the road then.

Mental note for everybody... if your state doesn't have annual inspections that require the wheels be removed, then consider rotating your tires now and then.

Which you should all be doing anyways to inspect your brakes and suspension for your own piece of mind

 

[OB_WAN]

you aren't using a torch on the wheels just the lug nuts. the heat is not gonna be there long enough to even heat up the wheel.

do one lug nut at a time:
1. heat the lug nut up almost red hot
2. throw the impact on there as fast as possible and buzz them off.
3. throw the lug nut in a cooling bucket so you don't accidentally burn your self (put new lug nuts on so dont worry about warping the old nuts)
4. repeat for the remainging lug nuts.

with this procedure you will not heat up the wheel any more than if you applied the brakes with a large load in tow.

Just thought I'd throw the warning out there.
It's your body

personally, I'd prefer just breaking them off with a pipe or big impact wrench and ensuring I use anti-seize the next time.

 

[Russ]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Ford use left handed threads for a year or two? on one side of the truck?

 

[THECACKLER]

The $50 fix is... Since you're going to have to buy a tire anyhow, just have it towed to your favorite local tire shop and let them deal with it.

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Ford use left handed threads for a year or two? on one side of the truck?

YES they did, and there is no rhyme nor reason as to which trucks and which hubs got the left-handers either.

 

[The Warden]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Ford use left handed threads for a year or two? on one side of the truck?

You're partially correct...they put left-hand threads on the left rear wheel lugs for a while. Not sure when they started, but I'm 95% sure that '84 was the last year for it...although maybe early '85's with the Dana axles had it also?

Any lug with a left hand thread should have the letter L stamped into the head. One good thing about a California truck is that the letter shouldn't have rusted off.

Unless some idiot went in and replaced right-hand thread lugs with left-hand thread lugs elsewhere, you shouldn't have them anywhere else.

At least, that's been my experience...

 

[RLDSL]

The $50 fix is... Since you're going to have to buy a tire anyhow, just have it towed to your favorite local tire shop and let them deal with it.

And a chances are a tire shop that handles big trucks is going to be running MUCH higher line pressure on their shop air. SOme of these places are running 170 psi, most tire shops are running around 150, average unit a person has at a home shop is pre set around 120-125. THis makes a huge difference in what an impact can do. Of course some of the farmboys that work at the truck tire places around here would probably just put a hand wrench on it , peel it off, smirk at you and say, 'what was the problem'

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Of course some of the farmboys that work at the truck tire places around here would probably just put a hand wrench on it , peel it off, smirk at you and say, 'what was the problem'

That is the case, more often than not.


Our compressors kick off at 225-PSI and there are no regulators in the lines anywhere.

While all the little stuff on the car/pick-up end of the building is plumbed with1/2" lines; the lines at the other end of the building are 3/4".

Occassionally, someone wants to borrow one of our inch guns (we keep an old worn-out loaner for just such occassions); they are wasting their time because for one -- they don't have one of those forty-dollar couplers to connect to it, and for another -- even if they do think to swap the nipple for one they can hook to, they don't have enough air to much more than spin the gun itself.

 

[The Warden]

And a chances are a tire shop that handles big trucks is going to be running MUCH higher line pressure on their shop air. SOme of these places are running 170 psi, most tire shops are running around 150, average unit a person has at a home shop is pre set around 120-125. THis makes a huge difference in what an impact can do. Of course some of the farmboys that work at the truck tire places around here would probably just put a hand wrench on it , peel it off, smirk at you and say, 'what was the problem'

Only problem is, there aren't very many (or any at all, for that matter) of those in SF proper I'm not sure if there are even any big truck repair shops on the northern Peninsula so, getting his truck to a shop that can handle big trucks may be easier said than done...

 

[snicklas]

I don't know about this in you area but what a bout a mobile tire service truck? I know here in the midwest we have mobile tire shops that do ag/industrial tire service on site. These are normally F-450 to medium duty trucks with a service body, a huge gasoline powered air compresser and normally a tommy lift to help with the big tires. Or maybe a big-truck roadside service company.... same idea.

 

[sootman73]

I don't know about this in you area but what a bout a mobile tire service truck? I know here in the midwest we have mobile tire shops that do ag/industrial tire service on site. These are normally F-450 to medium duty trucks with a service body, a huge gasoline powered air compresser and normally a tommy lift to help with the big tires. Or maybe a big-truck roadside service company.... same idea.

true thats how we ever did servicing for the 4wd tractor and scraper tires at my last job. the only time we ever handled those tires was if we were replacing bearings on them in the winter. if we were at the job we just called the tire company to send out the tractor tire service truck.

 

[jwalterus]

Of course some of the farmboys that work at the truck tire places around here would probably just put a hand wrench on it , peel it off, smirk at you and say, 'what was the problem'

lol, who uses an impact? I've always used a hand wrench, and it's amazing how much force it takes to twist a tire iron (only done it once )

 

[BigRigTech]

My 1" IR tire gun would snap an IDI lug for a joke....My compressor kicks off at 130psi....My 1/2" IR Titanium will take a 32mm lug nut off a tractor if I'm too lazy to go get the 1" pig....

 

[LCAM-01XA]

lol, who uses an impact? I've always used a hand wrench, and it's amazing how much force it takes to twist a tire iron (only done it once )

Apparently tho they ain't hard to break, at least the factory ones Ford put in these trucks. Well, there may have been a 3ft cheater pipe involved