[SDSUsnowboards]

Anyone have advice or tips on how to handle really tight nuts (the kind that go on bolts you sickos) that won't budge?
There is ONE keeping me from doing something on my bike and I'd hate to wait a week to pay a mechanic $60+ to do something I ought to be able to do in 40 minuts. Thanks!

Things I have tried already:
Having my dad try
Screaming at it
Tapping it with a hammer
giving up

 

[Dwayne Hicks]

Leverage. Make sure your spanner really fits so you don't round it off, then find something to extend the length of the spanner. The further you are from the nut, the more leverage you can put on it. Or try find someone with one of those compressor ratchet thingies they use at the tire changes in Formula One.

 

[Clint]

Leverage might twist off the bolt. Soak it with a penetrant, then try heat (carefully!). Contrary to popular belief, the inside of a nut gets larger when heated.

 

[jaydog19833]

Spray it with WD-40? I don't know which bolt you're looking at but maybe they used lock-tite in it or something.

 

[TL chris]

Don't forget, when you get it to break torque, if it's still tight don't spin the wrench around getting it off. Turn it so a ratchet will click a few times and relieve so of the stress that's on it.

Heat treating does work pretty good in most cases. Reminds me of this one time we had to pull a brake sleeve off an axle on the landing gear. So we put an H-1 (heater unit) on it for 2 hours to expand the sleeve. The puller you use come in 5 pieces. Two half-moon shapes for each end, and six rods that connect the two ends. Ok, that's like 10 pieces. Anyhow, when it came time to turn the puller that sleeve was on so tight, we actually ripped the threads off of the puller itself. Guess it didn't help we had a 4-foot long breaker bar with an extra 5-foot pipe for leverage. Nine feet of leveragecan break just about anything.:mrgreen:

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

Heat treating it sounds promising. It's a bolt that secures the dogbone (or shockplate as it's officially called) to the shock absorber. Kind of a sensitive area to be playing around with heat. So my question is... heat it with what?

Adding more leverage sounds good too but I don't really have any kind of tools allowing me to do that. I'll have to look into it and see if I can make something...

 

[Clint]

A plumber's torch. They can be directed precisely and sheetmetal shields can protect other parts.

TLchris, I don't understand your tip. Can you elaborate?

 

[Gixxerdale]

Well, my wife always..........opps wrong nuts. :roll:

Be sure you use a six point socket rather than a twelve point. Less likely to strip the outside of the nut.

 

[Clint]

Dale, you seem to have a habit of going there. Perhaps the reality isn't as large as the legend in your household?

:mrgreen:

 

[Gixxerdale]

Dale, you seem to have a habit of going there. Perhaps the reality isn't as large as the legend in your household?

:mrgreen:

crap:

 

[Clint]

Lol!

 

[prekarious1]

liquid wrench works. Other than that I would go with the head idea

 

[TL chris]

TLchris, I don't understand your tip. Can you elaborate?

If you want to break something good, do it right!

P.S. Nothing on your bike should require that much leverage.

 

[SDSUsnowboards]

yup... nothing *should*. The moron who tightened this exceeded 75 ftlbs. That's where my torque wrench maxes out and I got it up to that point but still no budge. the cut should have been tightened to 42 ftlbs. GOD!!!!!

I did try liquid wrench actually... forgot to put that on the list. I am looking into a way to increase the handle lenght... havn't had much time lately to think about it. I might just buy some plumbing pipe and use that. I'm afraid it's going to strip though... there are already sign of that happening. I should find a 6 point socket wrench, I've been using a 12 up til now.

I got some free time right now, I think I'm going to go give yelling at it another try (it works with the girl friend every time)

 

[stevie c]

A torque wrench is for tightening, not undoing, just use a normal spanner or socket set to undo.

 

[Hardware]

Have you tried turning it COUNTER CLOCKWISE...?

 

[stevie c]

Have you tried turning it COUNTER CLOCKWISE...?

:mrgreen:

 

[Clint]

A torque wrench is for tightening, not undoing

Perhaps he's the curious type (like me) and wanted to know how tight it was.

 

[stevie c]

Perhaps he's the curious type (like me) and wanted to know how tight it was.

;-)

 

[Gixxerdale]

Does that bolt and nut have a left hand thread? :roll: