Thread: Locking wheel nuts

I feeL your pain. I Once had a tyre place fit new tyres to my old dunny door, with a locking nut on each wheel. When I got home, I went to check the tension on the wheel nuts, only to find the nut adaptor was split ( no doubt in my mind from thier use of the rattle gun on it). I rang them up, and asked them why they didn't tell me, and what they were going to do about it. They of course told me it wasn't them that did it! I asked them how they tightened up the nuts without it, and they replied it was fine when they used it...

2 hours later with a small drill, and a chisel, I had them all off, and 2 buggered studs! I won't let a tyre fitter use a rattle gun on my vehicles now, I ask them up front if they have a problem with this, if they do, I go elsewhere. I have now found a place that not only doesn't use a rattle gun to finish off the nuts, they ask me what tension I want them done up to. Needless to say, they will keep my buisiness.

Cheers - Gav

I can only offer one piece of advice to you, GET RID OF THE BLOODY LOCK NUTS!
I'm actually surprised that it was the adaptor the split, usually its the nuts themselves as they appear to be made from cheese. I don't think you'll find anyone on here that'll disagree with me on this one.

got rid of mine years ago, have used vise grips to get them off in the past

Thanks guys. I've only got one left to remove and it is starting to resemble cheese. Was thinking vise grips but don't know if I'll get enough leverage to overcome how tight they are. Anyone tried stilsons or are they likely to just shred what's left of the nut?

Originally Posted by DiscoCam

Thanks guys. I've only got one left to remove and it is starting to resemble cheese. Was thinking vise grips but don't know if I'll get enough leverage to overcome how tight they are. Anyone tried stilsons or are they likely to just shed what's left of the nut?

Worth a try if it is already stuffed, not sure how much grip you can get... I drilled a heap of small holes around the whole nut, then chiseled them off. 2 of them I got no probs, and I ended up stuffing the other 2 studs while getting the other 2 to move...

Another option (as I had to do on my Commodore) it to get a socket slightly smaller than the nut your removing and belt it on with a mallet.

Not an ideal way to do it, and can ruin your sockets, but worth a try if your desperate.

Grab your ark welder and a square bar
Remove the stainless cap of the nut and put a few layers of masking tape on the mag to protect it

... Remember to disconnect the car battery ....

Weld the bar to the nut, making sure your not welding the stud

Install a large crescent to undo the nut

Originally Posted by DiscoCam

Thanks guys. I've only got one left to remove and it is starting to resemble cheese. Was thinking vise grips but don't know if I'll get enough leverage to overcome how tight they are. Anyone tried stilsons or are they likely to just shred what's left of the nut?

I have used Stilsons to remove a lock nut when the key split. Put some thick adhesive tape on the wheel to protect it otherwise you may gouge the wheel when the Stilsons slip off the nut (as they invariably will).

Throw the lock nuts away. PM Bundalene, he will sell you four standard wheel nuts to replace them.

Have fun,
Chris