Stripped splines on studs on wheel adapter

[Dueller]

Shades of the kid on the Honda forum.

I have adapters to used Cup II's (Twists) on my '87 911. A few months ago I blew a tire on the rear while on a long distance trip. I switched to the inflatable donut and limped back home.

Had both rears replaced at local tire shop. I go out last night to pull the wheels since I'm eleminating the twists and going to correct offset wheels. On the wheel that I had the flat, it appears the lug nuts were cross threaded. One lug cam off fine, one snapped off the stud on the adabpter/spacer and the other three were on so tight that when I tried to remove the splines on the adapter stud have stripped and are turning (albeit difficultly) in both directions. So I have this turbo twist stuck on my driver's rear.

I don't know whether the shop cross threaded them (all of them???) or whether when I bolted up the steel spare I bottomed the capped acorns nuts and ruined them or whether the shop overtorqued the lugs when I installed the new tires. Not trying to lay blame...just trying to figure out how to get this wheel off.

There is no way to get at the back off the adapter obviously since its bolted to the hub. Any suggestions? The lug nuts are "capped" and are recessed deep inside the wheel.

Time to break out the blue wrench and cut the wheel off...don't really want to do this as I have someone who wants the wheels as a set. Don't know that I can drill the nuts since they are round top capped and recessed deep in the holes.

Another reason to not use adapters

Suggestions?

[dhrcr911s]

pictures???

steel or alu lugs?? Alu easy as a hole saw will cut into them pretty easy.. Steel, not so easy.

[Dueller]

Originally Posted by dhrcr911s

pictures???

steel or alu lugs?? Alu easy as a hole saw will cut into them pretty easy.. Steel, not so easy.

Steel

Pics don't show anything other than a Cup II wheel on the car...with one snapped lug.

[Dueller]

It has also been recommended that I heat the acorn nut in the hopes a hot nut may break free. Perhaps using impact wrench in bursts to jar it loose. Thoughts?

[Wavey]

I'd say the monkeys at your tire shop ran the nuts on with their air impact and seriously over-torqued them, damaging your adapters.

Might as well give the easy fixes a try before breaking out the cutting equipment. This would include your last 2 suggestions. I'd heat them (might enlarge them enough to get a bite) AND hit them with an impact.

Last resort would be to cut the ends off the nuts (Dremel?) to expose the ends of the studs, then drill/tap the studs so you can run a bolt and a locknut in. That would stabilize the stud, but you'd still have to figure out a way to get a wrench on the lug nut - maybe an offset box wrench?

The big problem is you have 3 of these to do! What a drag. I'd be pissed. Good luck with it!

[Dueller]

Called a bud at the tire shop. They recommend heat and a big azz high speed impact. They have some stuff call "stop heat" that is a gel you put on the wheel in the area you're heating to insulate it from burning. Since the car is immobile right now, he volunteered to come over with a tow truck that has a mobile compressor and highspeed/high torque impact to see if they can help free it.


Wavey...Mind you I never remotely suggested their techs screwed it up when I talked to my bud at the shop. Why? Because it very well could be I screwed it up by bottoming the lug nuts when I put the spare on. But perhaps more importantly, this shop always does pretty good work, they'll flip my track tires and rebalance for free, and finally, on slow Saturday afternoons they'll let me roll my car on their high tech 4 wheel alignment machine, have a tech assist me on alignmet and even let me set up my scales to corner weight. Even if they were at fault, a 200$ used wheel and adapter is a small price to pay for such access and free service.

But you're right...it does chap me.

[Dueller]

Originally Posted by dhrcr911s

pictures???

steel or alu lugs?? Alu easy as a hole saw will cut into them pretty easy.. Steel, not so easy.

Pic to give you an idea of what I'm dealing with:

r