I have been unable to remove the lugs from the rear wheels of my 65 f250. I can't get them to budge, even with a 1/2-inch impact wrench set at 95 PSI.

I am sure corrosion/rust are in play, and I have shot the lugs with WD-40 two-three times a day for the last five days. I've tapped on them with a hammer. The lugs on either side won't budge.

It was suggested that left hand lug nuts might be in play back there. To check, I removed a lug nut from a front wheel, which was right handed. I was able to easily start that nut on on the exposed threaded studs on both rear wheels.

That suggests to me that the studs in the rear are right handed,,,,

What do you think?

It seems my next step is to tow my rig to the local tire store...

 

You need more torque. Try a four-foot snipe and give it about 500 ft-lbs. If the socket fits the nut, the nut will turn or the stud will snap. Either way, you get the wheel off.
Eric

 

I had the same problem on my 65 F250.Had to get a 3/4 drive breaker bar and a impact socket with a 3' piece of pipe and jump on it. No studs broke but my 1/2" breaker bar did. I put anti-seize on the studs and haven't had that problem again.

 

I just looked in both my 1964 & 1966 Ford Shop Manuals, and for an F250, they list 1/2-20 thread size, and a torque range of 65-90 ft lbs? (I was surprised it wasn't higher)

I have a small Ronson Butane torch which I use for soldering/shrink tube, etc....I have also used it for warming up nuts & applying some parowax to the threads, which then gets wicked into the threads.....

Might be worth a try **but I don't think a cigarette lighter is anywhere near enough heat to get the wax to wick into the threads

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ba2_1475277076

 

65-90 ft./lbs is correct for 1/2-20 , WD-40 is not really very good for this purpose. Liquid Wrench or PB Blaster are pretty good.

 

Ya, impacts are not of much use in this situation, nor is WD40, I agree. Alternate heat,a lot of it and your favorite “knockerloose”. I also agree that with a large breaker bar you should be able to move the lug but or break the stud. Get a lifetime 3/4 breaker at Harbor Freight so you can get another free, each time it breaks!

 

Ps.....lift with your legs....

 

For tough to remove nuts, I have heated the nuts with a torch and melted a wax candle on the hot stud. the heat draws the melted wax into the threads The nuts then can be removed.

 

Well raw power will do it one way or another as the res says and the other methods may too but they require some real penetration and yours sounds like its well rusted on there. As anyone who has one knows a hot torch does it every time. If you can't get your hands on an oxy-acetlene set a cheap MAPP gas one at home depot might be hot enough, propane won't cut it, it would take forever. The idea is to simply expand the nut by heating one side to red, real red, it helps weaken the rust too but you still may need to put your breaker bar on it as some times it comes off hard, dry and squeaking like hell. You don't want to heat up your hub too much so you want to heat the nut as fast as possible and when you get it off put a wet towel on the hot stud and drum, unless of course you are going to do bearings and seals.
Good luck

PS if you can get them to break the rust even just a little you can let it cool down and PB blaster or the wax will work better and may be all you need

 

Agree on most of what has been said. WD40 is not a penetrating oil, it’s a water displacer (WD). Wheel service industry professionals disagree on the use of anti-seize. There was a news story this week with a video of a wheel having come off a truck, crossing the median, and hitting head on into an oncoming vehicle. Anti-seize allows torqued nuts to work free. Stu

 

I use WD-40 for a lot of things but for something like this I turn to Kroil. I also wouldn't use an impact if I had room to use a cheater bar, I take the handle off my floor jack put it over the breaker bar when its about parallel with the ground and gently stand on it, sometimes it takes alittle hop to break it free put I'm sure you'll break something loose by then. Never tried the candle trick though, I might sometime.

 

 

Did you check to make sure they're not left handed? Ran into that a few times, however IIRC it was on F350's.

 

I noticed the '64 Shop manual has an asterisk * on the torque specifications, says "lubricated threads", though not in the '64 Operator's Manual.

Everything of course in recent years pretty much screeches like a wounded Eagle that dry threads are the Only Way for lug nuts, I'm surprised the Ad Council hasn't been running commercials.

Following torque specs is not wrong, nor is the use of lubricants on threads, though there is a catch - the fastener need to to be checked until they stabilize. This is true for just about every component, not just lug nuts. Nobody wants to bring their car back in for a lug nut torque check after 500 miles, anti-sieze or not. And then maybe bring it in again in 250 if it doesn't pass, and a final time for QC. This is the problem.

So what happens in practice, the tire shop just reefs them down to about a hundred yard-tons, they rust in place, and that's the end of it as far as they are concerned. That way there's no call backs, and no wheels flying off a year later on the way to Wally World. Nobody can remove the tire with hand tools either, but that ain't their problem. I use a small amount of anti-sieze on the stud threads, just barely enough to take out the squeek. A properly torqued fastener will not come off. That's what the torque specs are for in the first place. The torque spec is reduced when threads are lubricated, it isn't anymore complicated than that.

 

I have a 2' and a 4' piece of pipe to put on the end of my breaker and pb blaster for this reason. Something else I have done is to jack up the vehicle, put the socket on the nut and the breaker bar handle on a jack stand, stump, or something solid and then lower the vehicle. Let the weight of the truck do the work.