My new to me ‘95 F250 has a locking device on the spare tire eyebolt. I have a key that will insert into the lock but it won’t turn. I tried soaking it in different fluids but it won’t budge. Anyone have any tricks for removing this thing without messing up anything else?

 

Heat and hammering might break the mechanism loose if it's just stuck.

 

Have you tried heat? Or even better, a cutting torch to just burn the lock off / out?

 

Can you provide a picture or a brand name/part number of the lock?

If it's like a trailer lock with a keyed tumbler, you may have to drill it.

As already said... it may come to the flame wrench.

What I'm picturing is something that is looped through the loop portion of your spare carrier and if that's the case, you can just turn the whole thing off and get a new one at the junk yard.

I had to cut mine off and replace the bolt and the captive nut due to rust.

TG

 

I had a Master lock on mine. It was so rusted that I knew a key would never work. I used a die grinder with a cut-off wheel to remove the old lock. I think it took 5-10 minutes.

 

I just took the spare of the new to me '93. Had a brand new tire that had never seen the road with a rim so rusty the balancing weights fall off. I had to cut both ends to get the bar out of there so I could soak the center bolt to get the plastic piece off to remove the tire. I was a little leary about torch so close to the gas tank. I did use a die grinder though on one side and a power hack on the other end. I was actually able to turn the center bolt out after all nite session with blaster. The spare will soon live in the back of the truck.

as far as a lock I couldn't get off, I would cut it if it didn't have any sentimental value or something mushy like that!

 

My 93 did not have a spare, but it did have a rusted out eyebolt hanging down that had to be cut off.
Now, my spare, jack, 4 way lug wrench and jack handle all live on the folded down rear seat in my extended cab 93. With a nice 12 volt work light on a 16 foot cord. I once had to change a flat at night (long ago), in the rain, and discovered what a pain it is to get the jack from under the hood, the jack handle, and the useless lug wrench that comes with the vehicle. Then get the tire from under the truck. Never again will I have to do that.

 

I here ya. I went miles into the state land hunting once with a '78, parked and walked for hours and then came back to a flat tire. I only had the little jack under the hood. I had to carry in a lot of flat rock I found to get it to pick high enough and to keep the base from sinking into the soft forest floor. Very memorable.

 

My truck had a fifth wheel but did not come with the ball so I took it upon myself to through-bolt the spare through the hole with some stainless allthread. I still have to go under the truck to retrieve the hardware that drops when I undo the top, but it sure is nice being able to actually remove the spare in a hurry.

 

Can't you just drive forward a bit to get the hardware, after you have put the spare on?

 

Oh easily, I was thinking about the times i've had to remove it to load things in the bed. I have a habit of forgetting things so I just go under there to grab it.

 

oh. duh. brain fart.