how to replace one
To provide the best possible help, we need more information than you have provided. What year F250? 2WD or 4WD? Is this a front or rear wheel stud we are replacing? Once we know that, we can get into the specifics of how to do this.
Generally speaking, you will need to access the back side of whatever the stud is pressed through in order to replace it. This could be an axle shaft for a rear wheel or a brake rotor for a front wheel on a 2WD truck. The studs are pressed in, so the quickest and easiest way to remove them is to whack them out with a nice heavy hammer, and punch if the stud is broken off flush. The best way to install them is with a press. A hydraulic press is easiest, but if you don’t have one a C-frame press works well. Harbor Freight sells a nice one as a ball joint press set for around $50. Theoretically, there are other ways to install wheel studs, but I suggest you forget about them. Many of these other methods can cause more headaches than they’re worth. Do it right the first time and don’t worry about it.
You drive the broken or damaged stud out with a brass drift and a heavy (sledge) hammer…The brass drift avoids mushrooming the damaged stud, turning it into a rivet…The new stud is slipped into place, a flat washer, an oversize nut, a second greased flat washer and a new lug nut, upside down, greased are placed on the new stud. An impact wrench is used to draw the new stud into the axle flange or hub…Care must be taken to insure the new stud head is seated against the back of the axle so it can not loosen while in service…On difficult ones, I would discard the lug-nut used to draw the stud into place and secure the wheel with a new lug nut…
This is one alternate installation method that is commonly used. The method of pressing the studs in is, in my opinion, the ideal way to do this job since there is no risk of damaging the threads or putting any undue stress on the stud or its threads. Using washers, a lug nut, and an impact wrench to “pull” the stud through the flange can sometimes result in breaking the new stud or damaging the threads. Depending on the application, pulling the studs through the flange like this is much easier or even the only way to do it, but if it can be avoided, I suggest avoiding it.
If you have a press capable, typically a hydraulic press, I too strongly prefer this method. It’s easier and poses zero risk to the new stud.
remove old. insert new.
~ If someone chooses to flag that for the third time it would be nice to provide the courtesy of a reasoning. It is not an incorrect response. It contains no profanity. It violates none of the rules of the boards.
It is not a very informative answer. That is true. But it was calculated to be as informative as the original post. As long as I have been here many different people have posted things exactly like this in response to posts such as this as a way of making it clear to a poster how their strange and uninformative post appeared to others.
So, no. I am not posting it again because it is a serious answer. I am posting it again because if people here want to get that flag happy then this board will rapidly become a joke. Flagging is the right thing to do sometimes. It is absolutely absurd in this circumstance.
So - once again, if someone wants to flag it for the third time - that’s 3 - then let’s have that conversation, shall we?
I used the C-frame press out of my Matco ball joint service kit to replace five wheel studs on a friend’s truck (this is also the perfect tool for U-joint service). You do have to be pretty strong to do this, or have a nice long breaker bar, but as said it poses no risk of damage to the stud whatsoever. I told the guy in advance that I was going to make him help me do this job since I have been trying for the last couple years to encourage him to learn this stuff on his own. I pressed three of them in and made him do the other two. He whined and complained about it the entire time he was pressing them in! A hydraulic press is much easier, but unfortunately I don’t have one.
I haven’t flagged any of your posts, but I have to admit, after reading this one, it is tempting. There’s a little devil sitting on my shoulder saying, “DO IT!” ; ) I will try to resist.
LOL - because that’s all I was thinking after I posted it. I would be tempted myself in exactly the same way you are. Nearly irresistible!
I’ve not flagged it. The only time I’ll flag a post is if the poster becomes profane or is tring to sell a product. Disagreement, discourse, emotion, and even a touch of sarcasm or humor sre, IMHO, not cause for censorship.
I even believe that Samuel Clemens should be enjoyed and learned from complete with his imperfections and all.
A press fit stud with a C-clamp press? Man, you’ve earned my respect! Remind me not to arm wrestle with you.
Cigroller - The only post I have ever flagged is the one where some guy you answered a question for responded with a slanderous, profanity laced post. I flagged it and it promptly disappeared. I remember you saying you never saw it because others here mentioned it as well.
We all know the best way (the press) but how about the cost associated with pulling the hub to put it on the press? remember not all hubs come off labor free. Some studs pop out with a one second blast from the air chisel and pull in with no damage at all using the method Caddyman described. I tend to think the ones that get put in for free get pulled in by their threads.
The C-frame press I have has very large threads and uses a 13/16" wrench or socket to loosen or tighten the device. I used a long-pattern wrench for this particular job. These studs were going into a rear hub on a Chevy half ton pickup. I opted to pull the axle shaft and press the studs in from the back rather than try to do it with the axle shaft in the vehicle, having no compressed air at the fellow’s house. I figured trying to pull the studs through by the threads without an impact wrench would be a bad idea (impact tools are actually less likely to cause damage in a case like this than hand tools), and the whole job ended up taking about an hour and a half to pull the axle shaft, press the studs in, reinstall the axle shaft and refill the axle with gear oil. It was a ten bolt C-clip axle with no limited slip. Real easy to deal with.
Hey mark. I recall that episode and I think at the time I was only able to give a general thanks to the board - so now I say thanks to you for flagging that wacko.
In this post it may have just been the OP - but I was thinking…a guy who posts 4 words on a discussion board - and then never even comes back to answer the Q’s you asked him in your first post? (Admirable, btw, for its patience and willingness to help). A lot of posters like that seem to have trouble locating their own threads, let alone finding the flag button.
Anyway…it was just weird and I pretty much killed the horse in my post about it anyway.
(And like mtnbike I’m pretty impressed by the C-clamp method. But unlike him, I’d actually like to arm wrestle you - you know, just to see…
I have never actually been very good at arm wrestling or even lifting weights at a gym. I have lost almost every arm wrestling match I have ever had. I am, however, a big, strong, capable person and have always been better at doing real, physical work than any type of training or competitive activity. I usually tell people that I can’t lift weights, but I can lift stuff with no problem. I used to have an upstairs apartment in which I had a Chevy 350 in the hall closet. People would see that and ask how I got it up there. I would tell them I picked it up and carried it up the stairs. It was, of course, disassembled, but it still freaked them out. One person asked me how much the block weighed. I didn’t know, so I set it on a bathroom scale and was quite surprised to find that it was just under 250 pounds. I didn’t think it weighed that much. That’s almost what I weigh!
another car-talk circle-jerk…Dan Mckay never came back…I don’t blame him…
Oh, don’t misunderstand me, I believe you. I just wouldn’t want to arm wrestle you. At least not for money…
Caddyman has put an old phrase to new use, these (discriptive phrase)seem to be a nature of the forum. The one’s I like best are the ones that bring out the scientists, like 200+ posts to determine how much gas is in a tank. I bet two-thirds of those guys would leave their own drain plug loose.