02 f350 cc lariat, factory aluminum wheels, four whell disc brakes, I was trying to rotate my tires and my back rims are stuck to the hubs, I broke one loose by beating the crap out of it (the tire) with a sledge hammer the rim finally broke loose from the hub. I still have the other side anyone know of any tricks.

 

I had that happen with my DRW PSD. It took 3 days of PB blaster everytime I stopped, I would spray some between the steel wheel and the aluminum one, then beat with small sledge. I figured 3 days of driving worked it in well. I guess it would be possible with a single rear wheel, just watch the brake rotors. I also really put on the no-seize when I reassembled. I have heard of plastic washers for this, but have never seen 'em...Good luck..

 

Alum & Steel don't like each other - Especially if you live where they use lots of salt !

One trick I've used is to hit opposite inside walls of the tire - couple of good hits on each side, rotate 90 & repeat,90 repeat till it comes off. Usually slowly walks the rim off of the hub. Can't remember how many times mine have gotten stuck. I clean up the rim & hub real good before putting it back on. Light coating of anti-seaze will help but, I always seem to have one stick anyway.

Hope this helps.

D

 

Thanks, I have put some PB blaster on it tonight but I will take your good advice and keep spraying, I stopped by an alignment shop to see if they could get it off and they could not either, but they were in a bit of a hurry to get out of there for the night, anyway the guy said when I get it off to buy a set of those plastic covers that keep brake dust off of your wheels and cut the plastic down to just cover the hub, as for the blocking of the dust he says they trap heat and our bad for the brakes.

 

I have took a cone rock on a big side grinder and ground out the inside hole in each of my rims on the last I don't remember how many trucks for this very problem.

I had a flat once on the side of the road with grass burrs from hell everywhere that I had to lay in. Actually it wasn't as bad as it could have been since I did have the sledgehammer, or it would have been time to call the Ford engineer that started all this extra support that binds up on the axle hub.

They really need to do something better than this as most don't have a grinder big enough to cut the holes out like they need. Grinding the hubs out sure made mine way easy to rotate or fix a flat on the side of the road with clothes on that you really don't want to lay under the truck in the stickers and or hot pavement that sticks to your clothes and all. Been there done that and was not happy Ford owner that day LOL and I am a diehard Ford owner.

You take a propane torch and just warm the wheel up will help loosen the wheel just enough too. Make sure to do all the work on the truck hub like this removal of the wheel when the axle is cold too, not warmed up from running down the road as you would when you have a flat. Everyone needs to grind the wheels out a little.

 

Taped wood to the axle side of the hub and swung away. Start with an 8lb sledge and work your way up. I needed the 12. In all seriousness do not make metal to metal contact if possible. Used very light coat of anti-seize on hub flange to facilitate this procedure in the future. Be sure not to get any anti-seize on rotors.Don't goop it on, you'll just be asking for trouble. My 2 cents. I'm sure someone has a better idea, so I'll definitely be checking the posts.

 

I'm with Rowdyone, clearance the hubs once you get them off. Then they will come off the next time. Take only a very little 1/2 a MM or so.

 

You might not want to grind the center hole of the rim too much because it is a hub centered style of wheel. You can tell because it should have the flat wheel nuts and not the acorn style. One trick I used was to loosten the nuts a couple turns in a big empty paved parking lot, drop it in four wheel drive, slowly drive in a circle, let the driveline wind up and "cluck" it is free. Remove the wheel and apply never sieze to the hub area, not too much, excessive amounts might make its way onto the brakes, retorque and your done.

 

Yes. Only take as much as necessary to prevent seizing on the hub.

 

Bad, bad idea on hub-centric wheels! They're tight for a reason. This would be like leaving your lug-centric lug nuts a little loose so they're easier to get off next time...

The whole problem is corrosion between the aluminum and steel. So put a light coating of anti-sieze compound on the joint and they will come right off next time. Put a new light coating on every time you take them off. If you just bought a brand new truck, take the wheels off before they have a chance to get corroded and put a light coat of anti-sieze on. *That* is the proper solution, not turning a precision fit joint into a random fit joint.

Now assuming you are here in this thread because you have a stuck wheel like the original poster, here is the easy solution: Jack the truck up on a floor jack and remove the lugnuts. Take your stock bottle jack and put it between the frame of the truck and a 2x4 on the inside of the tire, spanning the wheel. (Not just up on the tire part!) Crank out the bottle jack until the top of the wheel is leaning out and the wheel will pop right off the hub.

Riskier process: loosen the lug nuts about 1mm and drive the truck around the block making sure to corner hard. (Lots of people have said that works but I'd never personally do it!)

Even with the anti-sieze properly applied, there's a trick to getting the wheels off. Jack the truck up, remove all the lug nuts, then sit on the ground beside the tire. Using your heels, kick the front and rear of the tire alternately. It will pop off in your lap after a couple of kicks.

Duncan

 

I'm only saying take the skin off, not hog it out. Certainly not enough to throw it off center! I've delt with many seized rims at work. Lot's of times all it takes is a Roloc wheel to remove the corrosion and it falls off the next time.

 

You said 1/2mm or so. It sounds like you meant at any given spot, which would be 1mm of diameter on the whole hole, which would be a very wobbly fit. Even if you meant 1/2mm of total diameter, that's still a lot of clearance where they intended essentially no clearance. They precision machine these things for a reason.

The entire problem is the corrosion, not the machining of the wheel. The corrosion needs to be fixed, not the wheel. *Everyone* makes the mistake the first time of not addressing it until it's too late and stuck, but the bottle jack method gets it right off, and then anti-sieze will prevent it for next time. Nobody should be touching their wheels with a grinder.

Duncan

 

Well, as I said I have ground all of the past several trucks I have had and not once did I ever have any problems from this. Working them in the way I have, they all was way over loaded many times too. Now I must admit all the trucks I have had have the coined wheels and matching nuts. So I guess that would account for centering the wheel and keeping it that way.

Its just that the gooseneck trailer I have has the flat nuts and the wheels for it never even close to the hub for a centering device. I understand the point made and all, just fail to see that its all that important really when I see way more weight and abuse to happen to trailer axles that don't even have a shock to help absorb the road shock.

I have 10K axles on the gooseneck I have and its had 35K steel pipe loads on it many times and its never been anything but steller. Was never a pain to remove the wheels either LOL. I would just like to think Ford engineers need to re-think this and do some real world tests on this and see just how much of a over kill this is, or re-invent the wheel; sorry I couldn't resist that LOL...

Nothing else cut the axle hub down some so that the centered up spot on the wheel is reduced somewhat so that it pops off much easier. A little relief on the hub area of the axle for the wheels that run the flat nuts maybe. Surely something needs to be done as most of us that have a flat seldom have two jacks and would even want to do that under the truck on the side of the road in stickers and mud, blood and beer LOL...

Still Frobozz, you make a good point here. I would still be one to modify them if I had one with the flat nuts. From the point you made though, might be better to cut the axle hub down some and leave the last half of the thickness of the wheel closest to the rotors as the centering device. I just know I would do something LOL. Maybe grind flutes in the axle hub to help provide relief leaving the actual diameter of the axle hub the same but reduce the surface area, just something to relief the bind. As I said before, I have done something to each of mine that was like that. Didn't mean to get things all stirred up so much though. Sorry guys for any trouble I have caused here on this topic.

 

Yes you do make a good point Frobozz, I only mean to say take enough to make the wheel workable so you don't have to ruin your nice clothes laying under the truck trying to kick the flat tire off of the axle in the rain.
And also remember that the lug nuts are acorn style, they are centering devices themselves.
What really needs to happen is to anodize coat the axle and the core of the rim so that they don't corrode in the first place. Maybe some POR-15 might help.

 

Kwik, so the newer SD's have the coined nuts still? I will have to say with all the things I have helped guys around here with on their trucks I have never even given it a second thought to look at the wheels and nuts, not ever had to remove the wheels on a SD. Also what is the POR-15, guess I have not seen that either.