Magnesium Alloy scientist needed

[Allan T. Chou]

Anyone have any experience or ideas on how to get frozen center wheel lock nuts off a magnesium wheel? I'm using a 2 3/4" stamped steel wheel bearing socket with 1/2" drive. Tried a 6 ft breaker bar, impact gun, and heat, with no luck. The 6 ft breaker bar snapped a 3" extension right in half. The car is a T360 Lola FA and had been sitting for about 10 years. I fear that the magnesium may have fused with the center locking nut some how. Anyone with any ideas? Thanks Allan

[Stan Clayton]

Allan,

We've had to use a 3/4" impact gun (rated at 600 lbs-ft) and forged socket, with the nitrogen tank's pressure regulator bumped up to 300 psi (max rating of the hose) to get recalcitrant nuts off.

Good luck!

[dereklola]

Same story as Stan on my T9150 which had been sitting in a museum for several years. We used a 1" gun and ended up at 300psi. Pure torque won't do it - got to use HEAVY DUTY impacts - use short bursts not long continuous pounding. I too thought they might have 'welded' together - not so.

[Allan T. Chou]

Thanks for the quick replies and the excuse to buy more equipment. Have tub stripped down to the bare aluminum and have to replace the roll bar back, figure Pat Prince will have a nice order soon. If you want to see Lola stripping check out my website at www.TheLolaRegistry.com and see all the projects that are going on at the same time. Thanks again Allan

[Charles Warner]

Allan,

Not trying to be a smart $ss. Make sure you are trying to turn the nut the proper direction. Possibly the uprights were mixed in a former life? Lots of Kroil - or Marvel Mystery Oil - follwed by lots more. Then heat. Put the thing in the oven. Chances are that the nut may have been installed with antosieze and then torqued down. It took an estimated 1000 ft/lbs of torque to remove one on the Ralt F3000 that had been installed incorrectly. Be gentle!

[Stan Clayton]

Good point about the techniques, Derek! We have a stamped socket as well, but don't ever use it with the big gun - we just use it to install/remove the cycle tires. And short bursts on big guns, too.

BTW, ally nuts can 'weld' themselves to a steel hub if there is even a tiny amount of galling. And they don't have to wait 10 years in a museum, either!

[Allan T. Chou]

Thanks all, just got the last one off and this is what it took. Found a 3/4" impact gun and had to apply alot of heat from an acetoline tourch. Took some hard pounding, waiting for the air pressure to build up each time, but it finally worked off. The last one was the toughest and I thought it would never come off again. So with the attitude that I would have to cut it off anyway, I applied alot of heat. Once smoking, I hit it with the impact and off it came. I examined the threads and the mating surface of the nut against the wheel and found no deformed threads, no corrosion nor anything to suggest fusing of the surfaces. Actually, the threads were still wet where I had soaked it with penetrating oil. So if these nuts weren't put on with 500 pounds of torque, I'm lost in figuring out why these nuts were so hard to get off. The nuts were clearly marked with an arrow to undo the wheel, so go figure. But thank you all for the help, now on to the next car, Allan