For the second time in five years, I've had drama getting the front wheels off my Kombi.

Last time was a few years ago, when one nut on the right just would not give. I broke 2 wheelbraces & now have a rather odd shaped ring spanner out of that effort.
I bought an extension bar with a socket & convinced it.

On the weekend I had 2 on the left decide they were quite happy where they were. One wheel brace & two sockets on the extension bar later, I took to them with a grinder.
They're off now!!

2 new studs & a pull down later, not to mention a 2nd hand rim, I'm back in bussiness.
But 2 days work to change a tyre I must say pissed me off.

Am I the only one that has had this drama?
My wheels have never seen a rattle gun, I always do them up myself, so it's got me stuffed.

The up side is, all this went down in my shed, not out on the highway with a flat....

Hi Spook
Why don't you use a thread anti sieze lubricant when you put them on.
I know what you mean about rattle guns, last time I had new tires fitted, they did them up so bloody tight I had to take it back for them to loosen them off!

Rob......

Spook

This all comes back to the tyre places using rattle guns. I never let them tighten my wheels nuts.

Ive found the best wheel brace to be a 19mm Impact socket, these are only single hex, heaps more solid that a 12 hex socket, they give a better grip on the wheel bolt or nut.

Attached to this is a 1/2 drive knuckle bar or breaker bar.

It costs about $40 or so but you will never break it. Try an get the longest handle bar you can for more leverage

i use WD40 on mine when they get stuck :thumb :thumb

As I said Dave, I have done these up myself.
One of the sockets I broke was a single hex 1/2" drive (what can I say,
I'm a big boy).

These bastards just would not give.

Sorry thought you were talking about the cold weather and it's effects:o

You were

Anti freeze is good

I've only ever had that problem on parts kombi's I've had. Further to what Robo says, CLEAN the studs and nuts and apply a liberal amount of anti sieze. Should prevent it happening again.
I also never let tyre places touch my cars, I take the rims in seperately!!! (It was a little tough shifing 5 x 215R15 tyres in the beetle though )

As for undoing them, many of the good quality sockets now grab the nut on the flats rather than on the points, they do work well on stubborn and rounded nuts. Just make sure it's a good brand!! I've broken plenty of cheap tools, but never a good one :thumb

when I ran widened stockies on my baja, I had that problem. The bolts would lock, and when they finally moved they creaked and sent a horrible shock up my arms.

I then started using never sieze graphite based lubricant on the threads and bevelled faces, and never had a problem again.

PS - with the post title I thought Spook must've bought a buggy!

Yeah, I have that problem for time to time. Usually around winter.

i havent tested this theory yet, but i have the same problem on my bus and was told to try heating the boltw with some form of flame.

JEN

your talking below the belt again YEPPIE

I had this same problem a couple of weeks ago while driving through Glenn Innes and Tenterfield at 9 and 10 at night in my buggy on the way to Toowoomba!!!
It was freez'in!!! Gotta sort out heaters real soon.......as for the wheel nuts...well, I thought just putting a smear of grease on them before you put them on might help.

Come to think of it why not ask MR930 what he uses as his wheel nuts just come off while driving along.....sorry Mark couldn't resist

LOL

Below the belt yes, flannelette jocks ? Do you think they would take off? Sorta like a diaper:o

Dunno if they would do it for me:jesus

Did I say that:P

I had trouble undoing nuts when they weren't forzen, not even going to try now until spring at least. Hope I don't need to:sandrine

I've never not been able to get wheel nuts off, but I really hate that shock up the arms that Wes mentioned.

I wire brush my studs and apply grease to both the threads and the seat of the nuts. I also have a 5' length of 30mm RHS in the kombi that fits neatly over both my wheelbrace and my 1/2" drive ratchet. I've never had any problems.

Needless to say, grease isn't the best thing for wheelnuts, but I check them periodically to make sure they're not loose (and they never have been). It does prevent the rust though! :thumb

Ryan is right though, an oxy would be much more effective than an angle grinder!!! :o:o:o

I dunno, the grinder was plenty effective...

The last time I took the Kombi into the tire fitters I removed the best of the wheels and put it in the van and put my old spare on the van, so that I would have a better spare.
Guess what they did, put the old spare back inthe van and changed the good tyre! I never told them because I thought they would figure it out!
Rob.....

I dunno what it is about some tyre places. A mate had new tyres fitted to his Commodore and wheel alignment. They let him know his front discs were warped and that was causing a wobble.
When he went to put new discs on a week later he snapped one stud and stripped the thread off another trying to get them off.
I have always used rattle guns on a low setting for wheel nuts and never had a problem getting them off or coming loose. Not in 13 years of driving and I have done it at least 100 times. x 5 wheel studs = 500 nuts I have been able to get undone without damage and not come loose in the meantime.
Why can't the wheel places get it right?
One of those mysteries.

Ahh Spook

From your image in the "so what do you all look like" thread I would just say that your imense natural strength you over torqued them in the first place.

Go on a low-carbo, low-fat, low-protein diet for a month or two and then see how ya go. Or use a torque wrench to keep your super human strength in check.

Hi

I used to have a problem with a local HWP cop neaR where I worked, he would try to find any defect he could, I used to run stock steel rims though the week and fit my mags on the weekends. Every Friday night I had to battle to undo my wheel nuts after only being on 5 days and tightened by me, when they undid they went off like a rifle shot. I reckon that its the taper on the wheel nuts is too accurate and this causes the nuts to lock into the wheel.

I helped a guy with a T4 and snapped a good Sidchrome wheelbrace on it, I then got out my breaker bar with an impact socket and that got the them undone, you should have seen what the guy did with his usless VW tool before I got there.

Thats what I want to know, why do most car makers supply wheel braces that dont have a 90deg bend in them?

1302Steve

Spook, you should know about the dangers of sitting on concrete floors this time of year.

Seriously tho moly grease or Copper Cote if you can still get it on the nuts should stop them from siezing up.
Worked on heavy truck and tractor wheels when I used to operate Heavy Earth Moving gear years (and years) ago

As a kid my parents had a 68 kombie.
Stop right there, I bet your thinking "ahh theres the link, fond childhood memories of a dashing vw resulting in this sad mans addiction to VWs as an adult;"
wrong, that Kombie was a piece of shiat, it went thru 2 motors in a year and had 8 flat tyres in one week. Probably not the kombies fault but nontheless it was not a good ambassador for the DUBS.
Anyway back to the story that I was telling before I was so rudely interupted by myself.
I do vividly remember my father spending hours stuck on the sunshine coast with a flat tyre out front of a castle tourist attraction, and all the kids, probably 5 of us by that stage bored stupid and getting more irritating by the minute making his life hell.
He broke the wheel brace and ended up cold chiselling the studs off.
Needless to say that the hiding we got as Dads patience was way to thinly stretched that day on the way home will be remembered till we die.
He fixed the problem of the wheelnuts jamming very simply he just gave the Kombie a new owner. :sandrine

I wasn't aware my image is anywhere on this site!!
While I grant you at 110 kilo I can put a fair bit of pressure on anything, I keep in mind that the lady Melanie can't, & she may be the one changing a tyre.

If this happened every time I tried to undo them I'd accept it was me, but it doesn't.

5 years ago it was 1 out of 20, this time 2 out of 20, & I've had the wheels off for various reasons between.

Just one of those things........

I'm telling ya, a bit of moly cote / never seize / anti seize / any graphite based lubricant will magically cure your problems.

Grease is not as good, as grease can go walk abouts and dry up from where you put it. The graphite based products stay there.

Trust me, use a graphite based lubricant and your wheel brace breaking, arm shocking, gun shot noise days will be over.

Before I discovered the graphite products I had broken wheel braces, severely shocked my arms, even broke a Repco breaker bar (they replaced it as they have a lifetime warranty). Never had a problem since.

From a technical perspective a graphite lubricant should be used on all bolts to ensure that they torque used to tighten them is transferred into a nice high bolt force, instead of being wasted overcoming nut to bolt to washer friction. Spark plugs are the only exception, where it should be used very sparingly so that it doesn't foul the plug.

I agree with Wes.

But if you come across a stuck wheel nut next time, grab a large hammer (copper head is better) and belt that nut square on the end. The theory is to crack the rust/friction.

I tried "tapping" them with a sledgehammer, (I don't do things by halves, although my wife & kids tend to get indoors when I break out the sledge).

Believe me when I tell you I tried ALL the usual methods before I resorted to cutting.

Ouch, cutting sounds drastic:o

They must have been well frozen

All fixed now?