What's the best remover for stripped lug nuts/lost wheel lock keys?

Friend of mine owns a shop... this comes up far too often unfortunately. Usually it's not a lost wheel lock key but a lug nut that's been overtorqued and then left on for a year or two, head strips, uncomfortable call to owner, then carefully blowing the head of the lug off with a cutting torch (destroying the finish of the wheel in the process.)

I've been around for a couple of these exercises; problem is that he's in a less than affluent neighborhood and the local parts/tool stores are worse than worthless; purchasing something that will work locally is not possible.. I've tried using some of my Craftsman and Snap-On regular stripped bolt head extractors and while I think they might work, the problem is they are all 3/8" drive and I cannot find a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter that won't shear the 3/8" drive before loosening the fastener, so I need something minimum 1/2" drive and strong; will have to be mail-ordered. MAC LT-4200 looks good and is inexpensive on the 'bay. Is there a Snap-On equivalent and is it better? anything else to look at?

thanks,

nate

N8N > wrote in
:

> Friend of mine owns a shop... this comes up far too often
> unfortunately. Usually it's not a lost wheel lock key but a lug nut
> that's been overtorqued and then left on for a year or two, head
> strips, uncomfortable call to owner, then carefully blowing the head
> of the lug off with a cutting torch (destroying the finish of the
> wheel in the process.)
>
> I've been around for a couple of these exercises; problem is that he's
> in a less than affluent neighborhood and the local parts/tool stores
> are worse than worthless; purchasing something that will work locally
> is not possible. I've tried using some of my Craftsman and Snap-On
> regular stripped bolt head extractors and while I think they might
> work, the problem is they are all 3/8" drive and I cannot find a 1/2"
> to 3/8" adapter that won't shear the 3/8" drive before loosening the
> fastener, so I need something minimum 1/2" drive and strong; will have
> to be mail-ordered. MAC LT-4200 looks good and is inexpensive on the
> 'bay. Is there a Snap-On equivalent and is it better? anything else
> to look at?
>
> thanks,
>
> nate
>

I almost never have one I can`t just break off with the impact wrench,
spin it up and snap. easy to replace lugs. KB

you must have a better impact than any of his guys... I know there's two of whatever the classic IR gun is (the aluminum one with the 5 position dial on the revering slider thing) in that shop, plus whatever the new top of the line Air Cat is, I have removed lugs with my breaker bar that none of the air guns will touch. What gun are you using and what pressure is your shop air?

Original question still stands as well, as unfortunately some lugs come in pre stripped for your convenience. If only people would only let competent mechanics touch their cars...

N8N wrote:
> you must have a better impact than any of his guys... I know there's
> two of whatever the classic IR gun is (the aluminum one with the 5
> position dial on the revering slider thing) in that shop, plus
> whatever the new top of the line Air Cat is, I have removed lugs with
> my breaker bar that none of the air guns will touch. What gun are
> you using and what pressure is your shop air?
>
> Original question still stands as well, as unfortunately some lugs
> come in pre stripped for your convenience. If only people would only
> let competent mechanics touch their cars...


If you want to avoid the wheel damage from using the torch you can
drill the wheel stud out. I have used this method before and it works
well.

In article >, Mike > wrote:
>N8N wrote:
>> you must have a better impact than any of his guys... I know there's
>> two of whatever the classic IR gun is (the aluminum one with the 5
>> position dial on the revering slider thing) in that shop, plus
>> whatever the new top of the line Air Cat is, I have removed lugs with
>> my breaker bar that none of the air guns will touch. What gun are
>> you using and what pressure is your shop air?
>>
>> Original question still stands as well, as unfortunately some lugs
>> come in pre stripped for your convenience. If only people would only
>> let competent mechanics touch their cars...
>
> If you want to avoid the wheel damage from using the torch you can
>drill the wheel stud out. I have used this method before and it works
>well.

The kids at the tire store never seem to have any problem just snapping
them off with the impact wrench. They even manage to snap them off when
they are putting them on, let alone when they are taking them off.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 2014-01-26, N8N > wrote:
> Friend of mine owns a shop... this comes up far too often unfortunately. Usually it's not a lost wheel lock key but a lug nut that's been overtorqued and then left on for a year or two, head strips, uncomfortable call to owner, then carefully blowing the head of the lug off with a cutting torch (destroying the finish of the wheel in the process.)
>
> I've been around for a couple of these exercises; problem is that he's in a less than affluent neighborhood and the local parts/tool stores are worse than worthless; purchasing something that will work locally is not possible. I've tried using some of my Craftsman and Snap-On regular stripped bolt head extractors and while I think they might work, the problem is they are all 3/8" drive and I cannot find a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter that won't shear the 3/8" drive before loosening the fastener, so I need something minimum 1/2" drive and strong; will have to be mail-ordered. MAC LT-4200 looks good and is inexpensive on the 'bay. Is there a Snap-On equivalent and is it better? anything else to look at?



Why not just hammer on the next size smaller (using inch and
metric to not have such a severe step) impact socket and remove
it like a stripped/lost lock lug?

On Monday, January 27, 2014 6:22:25 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote:
> On 2014-01-26, N8N > wrote:
>
> > Friend of mine owns a shop... this comes up far too often unfortunately.. Usually it's not a lost wheel lock key but a lug nut that's been overtorqued and then left on for a year or two, head strips, uncomfortable call to owner, then carefully blowing the head of the lug off with a cutting torch (destroying the finish of the wheel in the process.)
>
> >
>
> > I've been around for a couple of these exercises; problem is that he's in a less than affluent neighborhood and the local parts/tool stores are worse than worthless; purchasing something that will work locally is not possible. I've tried using some of my Craftsman and Snap-On regular stripped bolt head extractors and while I think they might work, the problem is they are all 3/8" drive and I cannot find a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter that won't shear the 3/8" drive before loosening the fastener, so I need something minimum 1/2" drive and strong; will have to be mail-ordered. MAC LT-4200 looks good and is inexpensive on the 'bay. Is there a Snap-On equivalent and is it better? anything else to look at?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Why not just hammer on the next size smaller (using inch and
>
> metric to not have such a severe step) impact socket and remove
>
> it like a stripped/lost lock lug?

Tried that, actually have used 12 pt hand sockets, problem is even using a 12 point socket you can't always get enough bite on a lug nut (which tend to be really soft) to shift it if it's been grossly overtorqued and then stripped. Had that happen to me once; I think the nominal hex size was 19mm and we got down to a 16mm 6 point socket and the damn thing still wouldn't budge, out came the flame wrench. Hence my question about specialty remover tools...

"N8N" > wrote in message
...
Friend of mine owns a shop... this comes up far too often unfortunately.
Usually it's not a lost wheel lock key but a lug nut that's been overtorqued
and then left on for a year or two, head strips, uncomfortable call to
owner, then carefully blowing the head of the lug off with a cutting torch
(destroying the finish of the wheel in the process.)

I've been around for a couple of these exercises; problem is that he's in a
less than affluent neighborhood and the local parts/tool stores are worse
than worthless; purchasing something that will work locally is not possible.
I've tried using some of my Craftsman and Snap-On regular stripped bolt head
extractors and while I think they might work, the problem is they are all
3/8" drive and I cannot find a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter that won't shear the
3/8" drive before loosening the fastener, so I need something minimum 1/2"
drive and strong; will have to be mail-ordered. MAC LT-4200 looks good and
is inexpensive on the 'bay. Is there a Snap-On equivalent and is it better?
anything else to look at?

thanks,

nate
Recently had all 4 wheel locks overtorqued and the key stripped trying to
get them off. When the guys in the Dealer's service dept gave up (after
about and hour) trying to get them off they turned to the Used Car shop.
Apparently there, they run into this off and on and had some special tool.
Using this tool they finally got all 4 locks off in about 15 min. My point
here is that this may point you to a source for some help or advice.
MLD

N8N wrote:
> you must have a better impact than any of his guys... I know there's
> two of whatever the classic IR gun is (the aluminum one with the 5
> position dial on the revering slider thing) in that shop, plus
> whatever the new top of the line Air Cat is, I have removed lugs with
> my breaker bar that none of the air guns will touch. What gun are
> you using and what pressure is your shop air?
>
> Original question still stands as well, as unfortunately some lugs
> come in pre stripped for your convenience. If only people would only
> let competent mechanics touch their cars...


You can get a set of universal removal tools.

For the locks without a key and some rounded nuts (size dependent)
M980 Emergency Lug Nut Remover Sockets

For others
SK TurboSocket® Kit - 920

There are also the sets with more sockets available from other sources.

Or you can grab one of these.
http://www.lugripper.com

--
Steve W.

On 1/28/2014 2:16 PM, Steve W. wrote:
> N8N wrote:
>> you must have a better impact than any of his guys... I
>> know there's
>> two of whatever the classic IR gun is (the aluminum one
>> with the 5
>> position dial on the revering slider thing) in that shop,
>> plus
>> whatever the new top of the line Air Cat is, I have
>> removed lugs with
>> my breaker bar that none of the air guns will touch. What
>> gun are
>> you using and what pressure is your shop air?
>>
>> Original question still stands as well, as unfortunately
>> some lugs
>> come in pre stripped for your convenience. If only people
>> would only
>> let competent mechanics touch their cars...
>
>
> You can get a set of universal removal tools.
>
> For the locks without a key and some rounded nuts (size
> dependent)
> M980 Emergency Lug Nut Remover Sockets
>
> For others
> SK TurboSocket® Kit - 920
>
> There are also the sets with more sockets available from
> other sources.
>
> Or you can grab one of these.
> http://www.lugripper.com
>

I'm not experienced in this (never ran into it on my own
cars or friends' cars) so I'm assuming you just don't have
access to the nut in full depth? Around bicycles, we slit
the nut and open it. I could do that if needed on a 1965
Chevy lugnut, not sure about modern wheels.

--
Andrew Muzi
<www.yellowjersey.org/>
Open every day since 1 April, 1971