People put antisieze on lug nuts without issue. Sounds to me like he wants to make it easier to remove. From the original post:
“for ease of removal the next time I remove”
For what reason is still a mystery to me.
I guess you are right. I really did not think it through.
If the lug nuts/studs on your vehicle has any kind of lubricant on them where I’m required to remove/install the tires/wheels, you’ll have an issue with me because I’ll refuse to service your vehicle.
Because the tires/wheels are removed for many different services, I don’t know how many times the lug nuts have been over-torqued and stretched the studs before you brought the vehicle to me.
So, I would tell you, you can either bring the vehicle back to the person who applied that stuff, so they’re the ones that get sued when studs fail while the vehicle is being driven and a wheel falls off, or, I’m going to replace all lug studs and clean the nuts off so we’re back to square one.
Tester
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You don’t know how many times they’ve been overtorqued regardless if the studs have any type of lube on them or not. Tire shops are pretty notorious for overtorquing.
But good for you. It’s nice to have principles.
My truck has / had antisieze on the studs. It was that way when I bought it. I’m not concerned.
I have very little experience. So if something odd happens to me I know that it may be more common than you think. I was in charge of vehicle maintenance of a small fleet. I saw a guy reefing on some lug nuts. I confronted him about torque specs. He said that using specs on most of these trucks didn’t work because they all came loose. I had every wheel stud on every truck replaced.
My daughter also had a van that the wheel came loose after I installed them. Replaced all studs. Just saying, if I’ve had this many encounters with stretched threads, it must be more common than many of us think.
So I’ve seen that the factory installed Toyota sway bar links, the “nut” (not sure what it’s called) on the base of the stud right above the boot is 100 % circular in nature
While most aftermarket sway bar links the “nut” is either hexagonal or cone shaped
This helps with the removal process. Ultra thin wrenches can help greatly. I have seen 2 mm thick cone wrenches online that are apparently used for bicycles. I’ve also seen hexagonal wrenches as small as 2.2 mm in thickness.
So for OEM Toyota sway bar links, there doesn’t appear to be an easy way to remove them. Anyone have any suggestions? The “nut” above the boot is 100 % circular so there isn’t really a good way to grab onto it. Seems like the only thing that can be done is:
x Cut the nuts off
x Back the nut off a few threads and cut off the stud
x File the “nut” so that there are two flat ends and use a cone wrench
x Use an Allen Key to counterturn and hope it doesn’t round out
There doesn’t really appear to be a non-destructive way to get them off as the Allen key hole is likely to rounded out. The less destructive and cheapest option would be to cut off the nuts so the link can be re-used, and just get new nuts.
What’s the deal with the 100 % circular “nut” right above the boot? As far as I know there’s no such pliers or wrench that would help because it’s circular in shape. I guess it’s just to keep the boot from moving up. Seems pretty cheap as most aftermarket links are hexagonal or cone shaped.
You don’t “counterturn” with the Allen wrench. You just hold the stud stationary with it. This might explain why you are rounding out the end of the stud. The friction of the stud in its mounting area plus the Allen wrench should be enough to hold the stud in place for all but the most rusted nuts. Are you using a good penetrating oil and letting it soak in before attempting removal?
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What @NYBo said, plus, if the exposed threads are rusted, wire brush them as much as you can, then spray with penetrating oil.
I’ve learned to spray those types of threads yesterday, today and maybe tomorrow before I try to get things apart the day after. There’s never been a bad result because I used a little too much penetrating oil.
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…also hammer on the area. The vibrations help the oil move and dislodge rust.
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I personally don’t see the need to use anti-seize on wheel studs. The nuts are easy to access and you can just use a breaker bar. What’s the need for anti-seize? Regardless of it reducing friction and the proper torque being unknown on something that is safety critical. I thought the rated torque ratings on wheel lug nuts where “dry torque” without any type of lubricant used. With some sort of lubricant used on the threads, the proper torque is unknown. Seems kind of pointless to me anyways if you can just use a braker bar. Why take the risk?
I’ve looked online and have seen people when removing outer tie rod ends, sometimes the ball joint spins when trying to remove the castle nut. People overcome this by using a outer tie rod removal tool in the opposite direction. Meaning they clamp the tie rod to the knuckle instead of removing it from the knuckle. The force of holding the ball joint to the knuckle keeps the ball joint from rotating when trying to remove the castle nut.
Can a similar trick be used for sway bar end links with some sort of clamping tool?
Meaning, remove the Zerk fitting, and use some sort of clamp there and the other clamp on the sway bar or the bracket on the shock assembly. Or perhaps even a clamp on the stud and the other clamp where the Zerk fitting is (after removing it)? I think the idea is to force the ball joint up against the bearing. If this force is high enough, I guess it would keep the ball joint from rotating?
If the Allen-head hole gets damaged, as long as there is room to put two nuts at the end of the stud, jam those nuts together then you can use those to prevent the stud from turning. You might be even able to turn the stud that way, while holding the nut steady. I should say I’ve never done this job before, so this idea may be all wet … lol … . But I have used the two-nut idea to prevent studs from turning, easy to do & works well.
Bicycles have thin nuts like that in places, and there are thin wrenches made to fit them. But the torque needed for bicycles gonna be much less than for suspension parts on cars.
Seems like the ideal tool for that nut would be a deep socket. But you’d need the sort of ratchet tool that has an open end so you could get an Allen tool in there too. Or just a deep socket, forget the ratchet, and turn the socket with a pipe wrench. All in all, an interesting puzzle.