Thanks to this board for lug nut help!

[65_lincoln]

Just wanted to say a huge thanks to this board, and especially John Walker, for the information I needed to remove four broken AL lug nuts which had sheared off at the bottom of the hex section. This was my first real project on my first P-car, so I'm pretty fired up. Now all lug nuts have had anti-seize applied and have been properly torqued.

The nuts were seized to the studs, and despite my best attempts to soak them down with PB Blaster (I was afraid to use a torch and heat, for fear of damaging the finish on the wheels), I broke off a couple.

It took me a couple of hours because I was very slow and careful, but I was able to remove the ball sections of the nuts using the deep 3/4" hole saw and a sharp drift, without damaging my Fuchs at all.

Now for my next project! I did bugger up one of the studs a bit with the edge of the hole saw, so I want to replace that. I've got a steel lug nut on it for now, but didn't want to foul up the threads of a nice AL nut with bad stud threads.

Thanks to all of the great guys and girls here who collectively have so much knowledge and experience!

[MattAlpha]

If you want you can try using a "Die" to re-form the threads on the stud if the threads are to terribly damaged.

[Drago]

Depending on how back you damaged the threads just running a steel lug nut all the way through the damaged area may be enough to clean up the threads.

[65_lincoln]

Thanks Drago, my old friend. I know that trick from my days in the bicycle shop, so I ran a steel lug nut down each stud with a little cutting fluid to try to clean them up. Unfortunately, there was some material loss on one stud thanks to the hole saw, so I'm planning to just replace all four studs.

I guess I need to pull one out to check for length (it's an '87 with 7" Fuchs on the front, so I'm assuming the stud length should be 45mm based on what I've read??). I need to take a look at how to get at them, but I'm hoping that on the front it should be pretty easy. But that may be a question for another thread.

Thanks again Drago and MattAlpha.