Two years ago I took the daily runabout to have its tyres changed, and the garage did the nuts up with an impact gun (including the locking wheel nut). About 1.5 years later, my mrs had a puncture, which I was called out to fix, but unfortunately the locking wheel nut sheared - had to call the AA and the put a patch in to get us going.
Anyway, Ford were less than helpful, and quoted a full days labour *AND* new wheels as there was apparently no way to get the nuts off without damaging the wheels. Local garages didn't want to touch it either "You can't get them out without drilling blah blah" or "you have to get them ground out" or "you have to cut the wheels up with a grinder" - ridiculous.
Anyway, fast forward 6 months, and the car now has a leaking power steering pump, which requires the wheels to come off to fix it. I'm not fixing the pump myself without ramps, but I'm equally definitely NOT about to pay hundreds to have someone drill the bolt out and damage the wheels in the process.
The solution to the conundrum was simple in the end - I used my clarke 135 TE welder at full blast with normal mild steel wire to weld on a stud, which I could then get an impact gun on to unwind. I kept the heat input down by doing short squirts, so as not to damage the alloy. Btw, I monitored the heat in the spokes etc to see if the wheel would heat up, but it didn't even get warm.
Anyway, in the end I got all four locking nuts off, and the two front wheels had the nuts done up so tight that my snap-on impact gun (no idea of rating, but it's never struggled with e.g. crank bolts) took a good 15-20 seconds to start turning each nut - it's even ruined one of the other nuts, which has now deformed to the point that the socket doesn't seat on it properly (It's one of those weird ones where there's a cap on top of a nut).
Progress pic:
Victory:
Anyway, Ford were less than helpful, and quoted a full days labour *AND* new wheels as there was apparently no way to get the nuts off without damaging the wheels. Local garages didn't want to touch it either "You can't get them out without drilling blah blah" or "you have to get them ground out" or "you have to cut the wheels up with a grinder" - ridiculous.
Anyway, fast forward 6 months, and the car now has a leaking power steering pump, which requires the wheels to come off to fix it. I'm not fixing the pump myself without ramps, but I'm equally definitely NOT about to pay hundreds to have someone drill the bolt out and damage the wheels in the process.
The solution to the conundrum was simple in the end - I used my clarke 135 TE welder at full blast with normal mild steel wire to weld on a stud, which I could then get an impact gun on to unwind. I kept the heat input down by doing short squirts, so as not to damage the alloy. Btw, I monitored the heat in the spokes etc to see if the wheel would heat up, but it didn't even get warm.
Anyway, in the end I got all four locking nuts off, and the two front wheels had the nuts done up so tight that my snap-on impact gun (no idea of rating, but it's never struggled with e.g. crank bolts) took a good 15-20 seconds to start turning each nut - it's even ruined one of the other nuts, which has now deformed to the point that the socket doesn't seat on it properly (It's one of those weird ones where there's a cap on top of a nut).
Progress pic:
Victory: