Rear wheel nuts seized / won’t undo!

[ChrisBezz 0]

Well, I suppose I’m open for some criticism over this, but my ‘99 VFR hasn’t moved out of its heated garage for 3+ ish years.

Yes, I know, how could I have left her sleeping, but life hasn’t allowed....

Anyway, I wanted to remove the wheels for a tyre check / renewal at my usual depot.  Except the rear wheel nuts won’t move. Even with a long steel 75cm pipe helping with the job.

Any ideas how to remove these stubborn nuts? I’m concerned if I lay on with the pressure too much I may well snap the studs....

Plus, trying to press the rear brake lever as well as applying pressure on the lever seems to be an acquired art....

I've been at this for 3 days, also using WD40 to penetrate the treads with no luck. 

Any help would be welcome.....

 

 

[MBrane 150]

 

[ChrisBezz 0]

An update - I’ve booked my VFR into Foleys motorcycles of Stoke on Trent, tomorrow, Friday. 

I've used Foleys over the lifetime of the bike, which was 20 years old in September. I trust them, always good service, honest people.

So hopefully they will coax these nuts off, job done!

[ChrisBezz 0]

Can someone explain me why I’ve got two threads on the forum relating to my original starter enquiry?🤔

Did I press the wrong key?

[tireguy 3]

Chris, the ends of the lug nuts are hollow, not solid to the stud.  Get yourself a small drill, about 1/8 dia, drill a small hole into the end of each lug nut, the material at the end of the nut is not very thick so you should be able to do this pretty easy, and squirt a generous amount of your best penetrating oil in to each one of the holes.  Give the wheel a turn every few hours, squirt again and let soak for at least a day, two would be better.  With the bike on the ground, have someone sit on it and apply the rear brake.  You should be able to loosen the nuts then.  Buy some new nuts after, put some anti-sieze on the lugs before you put the new nuts on and torque them to 85 ft lbs, or the metric equivalent.  Cheers

[adkfinn 63]

two comments:

 

1. WD40 is not a good penetrating oil. Something like Kroil or PB Blaster, etc. would be better. 

2. An impact wrench will make this and many other jobs on the bike much, much easier to complete, especially if you are a one man wrecking crew. 

[RC36B 26]

Assuming you are single handed in your workshop this method work for me.

• With the bike on the centerstand, you can make a Tourniquet for tightening a robe between the centerstand and brake pedal. That will effectively lock the brake with as much force as needed giving you two hands for those ass-tight annoying nuts.
• A pipe extension may be needed for your wrench (make sure to use correct metric 19mm)

I ever encountered a wheel nut that did not give up this way

[BusyLittleShop 396]

You may have corrosion where penetrating oil can not reach... I'd take it to a shop that will use a air driven impact tool to remove the Auto nuts...

 

 

[vfrcapn 251]

14 hours ago, adkfinn said:

two comments:

 

2. An impact wrench will make this and many other jobs on the bike much, much easier to complete, especially if you are a one man wrecking crew. 

The Duc has a center nut that is supposed to be torqued to around 175 ft-lb. Getting it off is a pia, I busted a 1/2" breaker bar with a 6 foot extension trying to get it off. The nut laughed at my 275 ft-lb pneumatic impact wrench...

 

Harbor Freight, 1050 ft-lbs, took less than a second to pop it off..

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-heavy-duty-extreme-torque-impact-wrench-64120.html

 

 

 

 

[raYzerman 6]

On 1/13/2020 at 11:22 PM, tireguy said:

Chris, the ends of the lug nuts are hollow, not solid to the stud.  Get yourself a small drill, about 1/8 dia, drill a small hole into the end of each lug nut, the material at the end of the nut is not very thick so you should be able to do this pretty easy, and squirt a generous amount of your best penetrating oil in to each one of the holes.  Give the wheel a turn every few hours, squirt again and let soak for at least a day, two would be better.  With the bike on the ground, have someone sit on it and apply the rear brake.  You should be able to loosen the nuts then.  Buy some new nuts after, put some anti-sieze on the lugs before you put the new nuts on and torque them to 85 ft lbs, or the metric equivalent.  Cheers

Caution..... I agree with a light smear of anti-seize, but that now becomes a lubricated thread.  Torque spec is for a dry fastener, and should be reduced around 20% or more if lubricated.  If you go 85 with lubrication, that will be way too much.

[MBrane 150]

13 hours ago, raYzerman said:

Caution..... I agree with a light smear of anti-seize, but that now becomes a lubricated thread.  Torque spec is for a dry fastener, and should be reduced around 20% or more if lubricated.  If you go 85 with lubrication, that will be way too much.

The lugs on the VFR depend on interference with the wheel not clamping force alone. As long as you don't get anti-sieze on the wheel surface of the nuts stock torque is fine. That is if you're not using a Clymer manual as a reference. 45 ft lbs is way too low. Oops.

[Grum 498]

14 hours ago, raYzerman said:

Caution..... I agree with a light smear of anti-seize, but that now becomes a lubricated thread.  Torque spec is for a dry fastener, and should be reduced around 20% or more if lubricated.  If you go 85 with lubrication, that will be way too much.

Just for info. For over 40 years I've always applied grease or oil to the wheel stud threads on both bikes and cars, have never torqued a wheel nut in all that time, just tightned to a good solid tightness based on the nut size. I've never experienced a wheel nut coming loose or a wheel nut seize onto the stud or a stripped thread. The first thing I do after getting a new set of tires on the car is to go around every wheel nut and back them off, then retightened them to my liking. So often the pneumatic impact tool they use just applies excessive tightness.

A similar analogy are those who feel the need to torque an oil filter or the oil drain plug, with a good feel for proper tightness, torquing these components is not necessary. As always YMMV.

Cheers.

[VFROZ 328]

On 1/16/2020 at 2:04 PM, Grum said:

Just for info. For over 40 years I've always applied grease or oil to the wheel stud threads on both bikes and cars, have never torqued a wheel nut in all that time, just tightned to a good solid tightness based on the nut size. I've never experienced a wheel nut coming loose or a wheel nut seize onto the stud or a stripped thread. The first thing I do after getting a new set of tires on the car is to go around every wheel nut and back them off, then retightened them to my liking. So often the pneumatic impact tool they use just applies excessive tightness.

A similar analogy are those who feel the need to torque an oil filter or the oil drain plug, with a good feel for proper tightness, torquing these components is not necessary. As always YMMV.

Cheers.

I strongly agree with you Grum. I don't grease wheel studs, but I do clean them with WD40 then just lightly wipe with a clean cloth.

Rattle guns and 18 year olds in tyre shops are a bad mix.

The only time I use the torque wrench is when I do the cams, all else I do by feel.

Mind you there are a lot of people that haven't done a lot of engine work throughout their lives, and seriously over tighten all bolts.

My first engine rebuild was on my mum's Austin 1800 when I was 14.

Mind you, I had a container full of bolts left over that didn't seem to cause any issues, obviously over engineered.

[Dutchy 2789]

8 hours ago, VFROZ said:

 

Mind you, I had a container full of bolts left over that didn't seem to cause any issues, obviously over engineered.

 

 

And then this happened....

 

 

 

 

https://youtu.be/yAI5-Golbmg