[rohrt]

I have a chrome lug nut spinning on my Ralley rim. I have not yet tried to remove it I just know I can't tighten it. Its on the back drum setup so I can't tell if the lug is spinning or not.

It has new Moser axles and new lugs that I pressed on. I made a dumb mistake of over tightening the lugs. I thought they were 100ft/lbs but steer rims are only 25ft/lbs.

Part of me wants to just ignore it until I'm forced to deal with it. The other part just keeps bugging myself about it.

I know the first step would be try and remove with the air tool. Maybe get lucky.
If not then chisel the chrome off the nut.
Then I'm not sure....

[grivera]

Once you get the shell off maybe a nut splitter assuming you have the clearance. BTW, lug nut torque is not 25 ft lbs - more like 60-70 ft lbs.

[b-man]

Get it done before you end up with a problem out on the road.

[Shockwave78]

Is it a steel lugnut with a chrome cap? If so, I usually find a smaller socket and hammer it over the lugnut. This works well for me and it doesn't take very long. Of course that will only work if the stud is not spinning in the hub.

[rohrt]

Originally Posted by grivera

Once you get the shell off maybe a nut splitter assuming you have the clearance. BTW, lug nut torque is not 25 ft lbs - more like 60-70 ft lbs.

Typo there, meant to say 75ft/lbs. At least that is what I found looking it up at the time.

[Sirrotica]

After you remove the tin jacket, you'll need a 11/16" deep well socket to hammer it over what's left of the lug nut to remove it. Working on GM cars, at GM dealers for many years it became quite frequent to have to remove these nuts, to remove the wheels.

Actually using impact wrenches on these nuts is what causes their demise. The hammering of the impact wrench splits the corners of the jacket causing them to splay outwards. The standard sockets also don't go far enough onto the nut and only having a small contact area also tends to split the metal jacket, as well as round off the upper portion of the nut.

Using a socket that will go all the way to the bottom of the nut, and loosening, and tightening them by hand will extend the life of these nuts, but no one bothers to do this. Also there ae very few sockets that will fit over the dome of the end of the jacket, and engage the whole flank of the nut.

The advice given to deal with it before you have to, is probably good advice. I can rember a 8-10 inch snow storm back in my hometown of Erie PA that I had to call my father to come rescue me when I had a tire blow out on my 73 Grand Am, and I couldn't remove the wheel becuase of the rounded off GM jacketed lug nuts. He brought me a 11/16" deep well, and a BFH to get the nut off. Probably the worst case senario to have happen.

My experience with GMs jacketed lug nuts, FWIW.

[jwcfbd]

If the stud is spinning try removing all other lugs and have someone pull hard on the tire while you hit the remaining nut with the impact. Do it in short burst and you might get enough friction to break it loose.