stuck F40 wheel nut

Rather than trying to expand the nut with heat could you try to shrink the spindle by packing with ice (dare I say it liquid Nitrogen). In the UK there are some plumbing kits that allow you to freeze pipes :

http://www.diynot.com/shop/220ML_PIPE_FREEZING_KIT/6461

Good luck, Mike

 

There are some high temp anti sieze compounds out there I've seen in Industrial environments, nickel based, IIRC......I'll check a can I have at home.

Glad you got it!

 

Here's what I've used for years on centerlock wheels, from F40s to TransAm racecars...

From www.mcmaster.com:

Dow Corning 321 Moly/Graphite Dry Film Lubricant
This lubricant is excellent for dusty applications because it doesn't attract contaminants. Use on tools, gears, taps, drills, and splines. Handles pressures up to 50,000 psi. Temperature range is -290° to +840° F.
Pkg. Each
Qty. Partial Pkg. Full Pkg.


11-oz. (net wt.) Aerosol 12 1254K14 $21.45 $19.85

Best regards,

Rob Schermerhorn

 

Why are you fooling with it at all?

When my Testarossa blew the right rear, I was very fortunate to be very close to home. - I just drove it on the grass and then up my lawn.

The fun began when I tried to remove that damn nut.
Tried everything, even welded up a six foot tool with my tig, but all that did was move the car. (Yes, I know which way to turn the thing.)

Called in a heavy equipment company that worked on bulldozers and such and gave them the special tool, and they couldn't even budge it.
Stalled out that huge compressor with ease.

I gave up and called Shelton Ferrari to come and tow it in.

It took them more than a week to remove it.
Constant soaks with penetrating oil and fooling with it all week finally did it.
While it was there I told them to take off the other rear wheel as well.

Changed out the metrics for 16s, used copper anti sieze, and now I take those d*mn things off every month or so and redo them.

That eliminates the problem of them becoming too difficult to remove, but I have to do the front wheels now. - If I can find some 16s for them, that is.

 

Porsche dealers have a coating that keeps the lugs from welding themselves to the alloy wheels. Don't use grease or a lubricant -that can cause the nut to loosen itself. JMHO

 

God I wish I had seen this beforehand!!!!!! We have this problem all the time with Group C and old Can-Am cars coming off the track. We try to untorque them immediately after a race or they actually tighten up when the wheel/hub cools down.

ABSOLUTELY use Copaslip copper anti-sieze. Nothing else. Silver anti-sieze is not good enough.

Your borrowed gun probably did not work because you did not have enough air volume to it. We use a 1" Ingersol Rand Racing Pit Gun port and polished by Hurd Pit Tools now BSR. There are smaller ones that work too, but it gets everything loose. It will not work on my shop air supply system of 150psi on a stubborn nut. We'll hook up a line to a bottle of Nitrogen with special high flow/high pressure regulator. We also do not use your typical 1/4" air hose fittings, we use the larger industrial fittings throughout the shop like we do at the race track. This one little fitting can make all the difference in the world. We also use larger diameter airlines.

Too late though now, but next time....and that's pretty likely....follow above advice. Make damn sure you put antizieze not only on the threads but the taper. It's the taper that siezes up, not the threads.

d

 

Copper Anti-Sieze ABSOLUTELY guys. A MUST. Also good to put on your standard Ferrari lug bolts/nuts. Keeps corrosion away, allows proper torque, and prevents galling of the materials aka welding together. This is recommended by PORSCHE and FERRARI as well as the fact that every pro racing team on the planet uses it for this very application.

Check out this link:

http://www.molyslip.com/Products/Copaslip.html

Buy it.

d

 

Sometimes you just don't have any choice but to get down and dirty and cut something off.

Each time we have a customer's car in with wheel nuts or the old knock offs, we spend an hour or two just servicing these components. Sometimes we end up having to scotchbrite the tapers to get the corrosion off.

I have had to cut one wheel nut off in 20 years, it was a LOLA T70 with 2-1/4" aluminum wheel nuts. At the track coming off hot, we had already put away the nitrogen, but I'd left my 4' long Snap-On 1"drive Ratchet and socket out. I actually bent the arm without budging the nut on a front wheel. I also broke a 1" Impact at Daytona one year in the pits trying to get a wheel nut off a 962 by putting too much pressure on the gun. The nut came loose, but sheared the 1" drive in the process!!!!

Now I'll probably have a run on old TRs that I can't get off.........like the announcer on TV....."he hasn't fumbled in 300 carries, then boom out comes the ball".

d

 

I can imagine the bill:

Wheel Nut Removal - 40 hours @ $125 per: $5000

*S*

Ken