Assistance Needed

[Red Dog]

Hey All!

I went to install some wheel spacers this afternoon and ran into a problem I've never seen before (I'm an 88M with the Army and have seen my share of odd vehicle problems). Once I got the lug nuts off the wheels on my '97 TJ, there was no play/give what-so-ever to allow me to remove the wheel. I spent two hours on the rear wheels (one at a time) and wasn't able to get either to come off. Best I can tell they rusted to the hub. This is the first time I've tried removing any of the wheels on my own, so I'm curious, is there some trick to getting them off? All the owner's manual said about changing tires was to "remove lug nuts, and wheel".

I know this is probably a no-brainer situation, but other than massive amounts of WD applied with extreme prejudice, does any one have any ideas?

Thanx

Trenton

[jaredmcvay]

Persuade it to come off with an adjusting mallet.

[Rubitron]

Persuade it to come off with an adjusting mallet.

Honestly, that's what I'd do.

[sincitycj]

Chances are they are rusted to the hub. Give them a good soaking with some PB Blaster, if you you don't have any GET SOME. Let them soak for a couple of hours and then give them a good wack with the universal persuasion device (hammer). When I was working in an auto center we used to just smack the center and they would usually come off. If not crawl underneath and tap around the backside of the wheel, spinning as you go. I would recommend putting a couple of the lugs partially on so that whne it breaks loose it doesn't roll all over. I learned that part the hard way.

[brian613]

That happened to me when I rolled a tire off the bead on my truck in a mud hole. I had to smack the crap out of it to get it to come off but it will but I'd soak it in pb like recommended

[Red Dog]

Awesome, thank you everyone

[cowboy63b]

+1 for the PB once again.

[SavageSun4x4]

chances are they are rusted to the hub. Give them a good soaking with some pb blaster, if you you don't have any get some. Let them soak for a couple of hours and then give them a good wack with the universal persuasion device (hammer). When i was working in an auto center we used to just smack the center and they would usually come off. If not crawl underneath and tap around the backside of the wheel, spinning as you go. I would recommend putting a couple of the lugs partially on so that whne it breaks loose it doesn't roll all over. I learned that part the hard way.

yep, x 2

[gearhead1985]

put pb on it spin the tire and kick the hell out of it when the tire is off apply a thin layer of anti seize on the wms and it will not happen again

[jackhammer]

A friend had a tj with same problem. shop gave up on getting the rear wheels off...lol. He brought it over ..I use sea foam penetrating spray 2 outa 3 times I use it it comes loose after a couple minutes of soaking. my frieinds laugh that it is like a sea foam infomercial. My other friend is a building engineeer local 399. His building , the prudential sky scrapper uses stuff called croil that he swears by. use a BFH. and I mean big..I used a 12lb sledge and a wooden block to distribute load evenly on said tj . I had them off in 5minutes