%^@F^%!@F@ tires stuck!!!

I have 2 tires on the 58 tat I can not get the nuts off the lug bolts. They are rustedon and will not budge with any amount of pressure. They just tend to round out in shape. What can I do? I need these off today!

 

if they're both on the driver's side of your Oldsmobile they will have LEFT-HAND threads,turn the lug wrench the other way before you break something.

 

Lug nuts on a tire?

 

If you look very closely there may be an "L" stamped in the end of the lug bolt.

 

I have used the fire wrench in the past to get lugs off that would not budge with a five foot cheater bar. Theory suggests that the drums will act as a heat sink for the bolt. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. I've gotten them red hot before and used an impact, and other times I had to cut the bolt and put in a new stud as a worst case which is not all that bad.

 

But it's a lot easier to just turn them the correct direction.

 

I believe rustedon tires are directional tires.

 

I thought only Mopar had the reverse threads. learn something new every day. what a goofy idea.

 

Weld a big bar to the nut then tie that to the bumper of a car and drive like hell, that should do something

 

For the longest time, I never knew it was goofy ... I grew up working on old Mopar's ... and my Alfa Romeo also has left-hand threads on the left-side axles/hubs ... maybe it's all the other cars that are goofy?

 

Take a pencil and draw them off.

 

There's an engineering reason behind it. As you drive, the rotation of the wheels causes the weight of the car to go around the lug nut (or bolt). This can eventually "grab" at the nut or bolt enough to cause a right-hand threaded fastener on the left side of the car to loosen.

Supposedly.

Mopar stopped doing it in '70 and I think they were the last to do so. Haven't been enough lug nuts mechanically loosened to warrant the weirdness I guess..

 

What the heck is a 58 Tat?

You guys gotta stop making up nicknames nobody else ever heard of....

 

I think they had to stop because thousands of filling station attendants proved that you could easily put either kind of lug on either kind of stud if you leaned on the air wrench hard enough...I would bet htere's not an old Mopar in the country that still has all its original studs on it!

 

Well...T and R are very close together on the keyboard. Maybe he meant to type...Oh no!

NOT the "R" word!?!?

LOL

 

Got em. Im used to them coming off when you turn counter clockwise. Thanks YORG!

 

"58 Tat"= 58 that....

 

heat the nut, remove with vise grips, be sure you turn in the rite direction. If this fails, torch off the nut and the stud without damaging the rim if you want to keep it; then install new wheel studs.

 

you're welcome

the 1st time i ran into a left-handed lug-nut was when my dad sent me out (in the rain) to change the tire on my sister's '66 Dodge Monaco,i twisted the head off the 1st one,and only then did i notice the "L"

 

Didn't give a thought to context.
Thanks Yorg.

My memory must be going, with over 50K members I can't remember all their cars....

 

don't feel bad, I didn't know about my 59 olds either, it was the same way.

 

The finned Alfa drums I have are cast with "sinister" on the left side ones. Just kinda makes 'em cooler in my mind.

 

Hmm. I never had a problem with that until I had a metric car. I like to get a good tight fitting lugwrench and slip the bumper jack over the end of it and use it like a cheater bar. That usually does the trick.

GM can be goofy, Buick used bolts at least to '58, but was the only one; Olds and Pontiac had the left hand threads at least to '60, and I think Chevy didn't have the left hand threads at all.

 

Olds was sued by some guy that hurt his back trying to get left hand lugnuts off, and they lost the suit.
So they made them all right hand.

 

look up the definition of sinister....... it means from the left
thats all you lefty's out there even the left brainers
now who's the goofy ones?.

 

You'd lose... had a '53 Cranbrook in not to long ago, still had them...

 

My pickup has a mopar rear axle in it that still has them too. You shoulda seen the look on the kids face at the tire place when I tried to explain it to him. "Yeah, only the driver's side rear..." "You don't know what left-handed threads are?" ... "yes, the driver's side"... "rear"

Oh, and to the guy who started this thread; don't feel too bad. I have had a couple cars with this er, um, "feature" over the years and I still forgot from time to time!

 

My 59 Plymouth and the 61 Olds (I had) both where like that ! But I was told ahead of the game before I tried to take them off !

 

Damn. I drove an Alfa squaretail for 12 years straight as my only car. Was a member of AROC. Won the People's Choice award at Alfa Alley in Sebring. Lived and breathed all things Alfa for years. And yet I never noticed the word Sinister on the drums.

I feel so completely ripped off.

dka

 

I learned about the Mopar ones the hard way too. My buddy's truck had a flat at night in the middle of a snow storm. He was making all kinds of strange sounds trying to get the first nut off. Finally I told him that I'd try it. Bang! Bang! Two snapped off studs in a row. Then he said something about maybe they turn the other way, and of course they did. Fun stuff when your butt is hanging out in traffic, because the snowpiles were so high we couldn't get it very far off the road.