My new to me Disco was the subject of a 2" lift this weekend/holiday. By far the biggest challenge was getting the wheels off!

I quickly found that the lug nuts were in terrible shape, the 1-1/16" socket did NOT fit on them. I used a 1-1/8" and hammered it onto a socket. After using a 24" breaker bar with no luck I added a pipe on the bar - still no good! I used a 1/2" impact wrench with 140PSI - no good! After a trip to the auto parts store, I had an impact socket in 1-1/8" (and a 1-1/16" for later) and a 3/4" to 1/2" drive impact adapter. Put the 3/4" impact driver on the wheel nut and _finally_ got them to loosen. Needed the gun for all the nuts. Most got stuck in the socket and had to be pried out. This fiasco took several hours from start to finish.

The damage to the nuts is undoubtably from the use of an impact gun to tighten the lugs. Arrgh!

Then I had trouble getting the wheels off. Fronts came off fairly easy, the right rear required crowbar work, and the left rear would NOT come off! At least, not with a crowbar applied creatively inside and out. Lots of PB Blaster used in all the lug holes and I removed the center cap to soak that area. Ended up having to leave it on and do the lift install around the wheel (not very difficult).

When I installed the other wheels, the center surface of the hub got a generous coating of teflon based grease and a copper anti-seize was used on the studs. I tried the "drop it" approach on the stuck wheel, it did nothing. I then drove the truck a few feet with very loose nuts on the stuck wheel. I think it might have finally started to move, but I ran out of time to investigate further. I'll revisit that when my replacement lug nuts get here and I pull these junk nuts off for good. I just might remove the alloy covers and keep them handy as all steel lugs.

What a hassle! Just a little care and forthought by those who came before could have prevented all of this. If there had been a flat on the road, this would have been a towing incident, there is NO WAY the lugs could have been removed.

 

That makes me want to go out and test the wheels I've got on the ground...

 

Yeah, mine have been on and off a few times for balancing and tire changes, but sounds like I'll need to verify them again later today. I'd hate to be fighting that on the side of the freeway.

 

you should not use antisieze on your studs or lugs, it is fine to use on surfaces like the hub and rotor flange but not on the studs or nuts.
if you leave the lugs on that wheel only loosen them 1 or 2 turns, make a figure 8 to the right and a figure 8 to the left the wheel will probably loosen for you.

 

Yeah, this "drive while loose" approach will be the next attempt. I'm hoping the three gallons of PB Blaster will have done some magic also

I've been using anti-seize on the studs and threads of steel nuts for 30 years. No issues with loosening up. I do check them after a few hours of driving to make sure the torque value is still correct. It can be messy with open nuts but the closed LR style should keep that stuff where it belongs. You might find this discussion interesting

Use of Anti Seize on Vehicle Lug Nuts

As a point of information, I don't put the anti-seize on the contact surfaces of the wheel and lug nut, _only_ on the threads.

 

I bought a 28mm(IIRC) impact socket. Got tired of hammering on the 27mm.

 

Remove the tin caps and then get a 26mm socket.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...removal-46843/

 

Yes, I'm going to do this as an experiment (need to paint or coat the nuts). This video shows the quick and easy process:

 

If anyone else does any work on my truck that requires removing a wheel the first thing I do when I get home is loosen the lugs and then tighten them to the correct torque using a torque wrench. Also, if you are rotating the tires every other oil change they shouldn't get all that locked up unless you don't drive it much.


By the way, do you have all of the center caps on your wheels? I had a missing one on my P38 and that was the wheel that always was a little tougher to get free of the center hub. Either way, the never seize on the center hub will take care of that issue.

 

When got my Disco 2 years ago, decided that removal torture would never happen again, and lightly grinded the wheel central hole for a not tight fitting onto the hub. Greased surfaces and bolts and always install nuts with the supplied wrench, no pneumatic tools.
A sweet piece of cake every removal since then. Nut caps removal was not needed.