These suckers are tight! Rears were no problem. I managed to snap a 3 foot breaker bar trying to get one off. Started on the passenger side with no luck even with some heat and pen oil. Could it be LH thread? I managed to get them off. they are all a standard metric thread. Pics further down. Thanks for the input from everyone.
It is common for teh wheels and threads on teh left hand side of teh vehicle to have left hand threads. A lesson learned the hard way, when I was about eight, and my buddy and I were told to loosen the lugs on his dads tractor while he went to get a new tube. We tried a 3/4-inch breaker bar about four feet long, and still couldn’t bust them loose. So we got a pipe and slipped it over eh breaker bar to get a longer lever. That didn’t work. So, we got a longer pipe, and put it on the breaker bar. Now you have two kids jumping up and down on about a ten foot lever, and the stud snapped. Damn, that was weird. So, then we started on the next stud. After about ten minutes we broke that one off. Four studs later, my buddies dad gets back. At first he was kind of pissed. But then he decided it was his own fool fault for not explaining left hand threads to us. He explained left handed threads, and left us to loosen the rest of the lugs, and he headed back to NAPA to get some replacement studs. In my teens, my Mom had a Dodge with left handed studs on the left side. I was redoing the brakes, and decided it would be a good idea to replace all of the them with right handed studs. And it was a great idea. Until she went to buy new tires, and the guy at the tire shop broke three of them off with his air wrench. He knew that Dodges had left handed threads on the left side.
I’ve never heard of left handed wheels studs in all the years of working in 100’s of vehicles. To clarify, I’m talking about the axle nut, not lug nuts. Still wondering if they are standard or left hand.
Do you have threads exposed? You should be able to tell from examining them. Hold a standard right hand thread next to the exposed threads and take a look.
Next idea is, just try turning the nut the other way, and see what happens. You’ve already put a lot of torque on it, so you shouldn’t hurt, anything putting the same load on it the other direction.
Went to my parts truck and it came off with relative ease, not a left hand thread. My truck is just rusted on bad, I mean the worst I’ve seen. It doesn’t look bad but it is. I’ve ground the nut down to try and split it so that I can get it off. It is just like the nut is welded on. I’ve tried heat, impact, tons of pen oil, you name it. If I can’t split the nut im going with dynamite.
That sound's like your best choice, after all that. Split it, then you'll know for sure what you've got, left, or right handed threads. Take your time splitting the nuts, so you don't damage the threads! Naturally, getting two more nuts, to replace the split ones, should be the easier part of the project! Good Luck! Limestone
I’ve already confirmed both sides are NOT left hand threads. This is a frame off restoration/ custom job. I have a vision in mind and once I’m done I will post a ton of pics.
I was just going to say.. they are absolutely *NOT* Left Handed Threads... It must just be very on there. The only brand I know of who has ever done Left Handed anything was Chrysler/Dodge for their lugnuts.
Now that you have cut at it a bit: Try lubing it up, and see if you can take it off with a socket. Sometimes the vibration from being cut loosens things up enough to let them come loose. That is part of how impact wrenches bust things loose. The repeated hammering will bust things loose and get them turning.
I agree with Jig's. Sometimes a nasty bolt can be what we called "rattled off" with an air hammer! Just by placing the flat part of the air hammer bit, on the flat part off the nut, slowly giving it controlled air, left and right sides of the nut, increasing the air, and pressure as needed! Works amazingly, when 4 ft., and 5 ft. pipes, on breaker bars won't! It really saves your shoulder joints, and whatever joints, might be aching!
It was a bitch, but 4hrs of perseverance paid off. Just a few tools needed. Amazingly the threads are perfect. Threw in a pic of the progress of the project. If you notice, the back half is all done and now working on the front half. All I can say is I am so glad I picked up a complete parts truck to help out.
So, here is the$1,000,000 question. Now that the nut is off.. does the axle come out? I had the same issue on my front left when I went to replace the axle. I eventually got the nut off, but the axle would not budge at all, and I ended up just replacing the whole knuckle with one from a TT2 truck.
