Stripped wheel studs

[Grand_Wag_85]

Trying to remove the front tire from the GE and 3 wheel studs appear to be spinning inside the rotor.

Aside from breaking out the acetylene torch how have you guys done this?

[KJ Ryu]

I put an old-style cross lug wrench on them and bend back and forth til they break off.

[Stuka]

I have run into this once, here is what I did. I had to use an impact, doing it by hand would not work. If its an air one, crank up the speed on it. And then, you need to put rotational force on the tire, so that its pushing against the lugs. In my case, somebody on the brakes, and somebody else was trying to turn the tire. In my case, wagon wheels so he was able to stick a bar in the wheel and push down. This put enough friction on the lugs that the impact was able to get them off.

[tgreese]

Have not ever tried this, but won't the hub come off still bolted to the wheel, if you remove the brake caliper? I would think the back of the wheel studs would then be exposed. Maybe you could grab the backside, or grind down the shoulder of the studs, or even put a nut over the stud and weld inside the nut.

[rocklaurence]

Have not ever tried this, but won't the hub come off still bolted to the wheel, if you remove the brake caliper? I would think the back of the wheel studs would then be exposed. Maybe you could grab the backside, or grind down the shoulder of the studs, or even put a nut over the stud and weld inside the nut.

You've got a point--the hub has to come off to replace the studs. I would use a cut-off wheel and split the lug nuts with it. Then use a small chisel to separate the 2-4 pieces of the nut.

[derf]

The hub is held in place with the bearings and spindle nuts. The disc brake caliper isn't holding anything "in place". It floats back and forth depending on movement allowed by the hub. It has a limit on its range of motion so you can't get the disc brake out without taking off the brake caliper in some way. But it's the bearings and spindle nuts inside the hub that hold everything in place.

[Stuka]

Getting the caliper off with the wheel on isn't going to happen unless you are running very large wheels, like 20"+.