Sometimes a Breaker Bar is Just Not Long Enough

Ferrari insisted on the alloy nuts being dry. I have seen dry graphite or moly lubes work well.

I use a very long cheater bar, its a little easier on the nuts but I have had to resort to a 1 inch gun too. When you have a six or eight foot bar, the car on the ground, someone inside standing on the brake with all their might and the wheel is still turning and the pile of broken tools is mounting you have to get mean. We have broken good quality torque multipliers and 3/4 square drives off like they were made of lead. The Ferrari wheel sockets are tough though. Never broken one and boy have we tried.

 

Why not the air gun right off the bat?

 

Heavy duty..........heavy duty.
View attachment heavyduty.wav

 

What is the wheel lug supposed to be torqued to originally?

 

It doesn't do the sockets any good and the big, expensive alloy nuts come out looking like they got beat on with a hammer. At $600 each it pisses the owner off.

 

Hard to find. SERIOUSLY clever. The axle nut is rotated (via gearing) around the arc that is bolted to the lugnuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66PeguKXnds
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680nm on an F50.


The others I don't recall without looking them up.

 

cool tool. i went out today and cussed at the nut. it still has refused to budge. tomorrow i plan to threaten the nut with the air grinder. perhaps seeing the implements of its destruction will loosen its resolve.

 

I will have to look up the torque once I go to put them back on but 680 NM sounds about right. Not sure just now.

I need to get somebody to hit the brakes as the tires just spin now. I will probably get to it some time this weekend.

Ferrari Tampa Bay said that should do it, but offered to put the 1 inch drive air gun to it if needed. Apparently it is always a pain. I know this from my own past experiences, so does everybody else it seems.

Anyway, the point is that the wheels need to have the nuts moved periodically, probably yearly would be good.

Note: the torque wrench is bigger than the breaker bar. It has got to weigh over 30 lbs.

aehaas

 

That is seriously badass!

 

I agree with Brian on dry lubes and was never really concerned about those with lock plates. All I felt was required on those was to be sure the nut was in full contact with the wheel and a smooth torque was applied. The F40's without locking plates, those present special needs and attention.

Agreed on yearly service of the nuts. A good bit of time has been spent wet stoning burs off of gauled wheel nuts that were ignored.

I have two of the torque wrenches, each cost more than the 1" impact! Hard to believe a tool that big can be so precise, the old ones are a piece of art, like an old pocket watch!

 

"Forward Off, Back On" is the phrase to remember.

I use a spray teflon on the thread of the axles after very thoroughly cleaning of nuts and axles, then an accurate (very expensive) torque wrench. Still tough to get em back off.

 

You could always jamb a piece of 2x4 in the wheel spokes redneck style

 

OK, I got the wife to help out and hit the brakes. I first applied pressure to get the wheels tight up against the chocks then she hit the brakes to keep the wheels from turning. Using my new 8' breaker bar I applied steady pressure for about 10 - 15 seconds (no jerking) and then the nuts started to loosen gradually . There was no snapping, just a gradual release as you would want.

I then tightened them back up. The service manual says 640 NM but I only put them back on at 580 NM. In a few months I will change the oil. Then I will take the wheels off completely but for now it was just to crack them loose.

aehaas

 

If they're now not as tight as the manual says they should be, will you still be driving the car or just shuffling it around the driveway?

All the best,
Andrew.

 

That's a pretty cool breaker bar - but does it function as a torque wrench as well? What does 580nm translate to in ft lbs?

RMX

 

427 ft lbs

 

I built electric trolley cars for a while, we had to test the ebrake system to 1,000 foot pounds before putting it on the street and only had a 6 foot bar...

I didnt weigh enough at 150 and had to have a buddy help push.... yes it was a serious torque wrench.

 

Yet another reason to be skeptical of the Ferrari myth--as in, what were they thinking when designing, manufacturing and selling to the public a car that needed a $3K belt change every 3 yrs (3x8) back in the 1970s, and a 21st century car that needs a 10 foot pole (sorry, breaker bar cum torque wrench), the Enzo, to change a wheel, as well as a wheel that must be removed and replaced every yr! What were they thinking indeed, other that their engineers had been drinking too much Lambrusco or that they wanted the official dealers to have an owner built-in captive audience. We must be nuts to go along with this m.o. He*l, the more I think about it, if anybody is interested in a 40K mile 1977 308 GTB with all services done within the last two yrs (belts, bearings, hoses, distributors, Webers), let me know, I may just be in the mood to sell before it's due for the next "regular maintenance." Sheeeesh!

 

Then wtf are you doing here?


Why don't you go try Toyota chat twerp?

 

+1

 

How much "weight" do you think you put on the bar? If it was 100lbs, that makes for 800LB-Ft of torque to get the nut to move. If the book says 640NM (472LB-Ft) that probably could be about right considering just a little bit of dirt or corrosion can significantly increase the resistance of the nut to turning.

 

'A guesstimation only - I put maybe 75 lbs on the end of my bar extension for the rear wheel nuts and less, maybe 50 lbs on the front. I am not sure why the front nuts came off easier.

aehaas

 

Isn't there an Allen screw in the cap to make sure it does not back off?

 

It's got nothing to do with wheel nuts, but in the photo of your lift there are plates bolted to the floor. Are they for securing the lift? Did the lift manufacturer specify them? My lift is secured just around the base. I've always wondered what keeps it up.