Any tips for massively over torqued lug nuts?

Leverage. I, too, have used a HF jack handle. Elise lug nuts somehow seem to semi-permanently attach themselves. I twisted one of the lug nut tools (star pattern, kinda) until it looked like a candy cane with a 3/4" impact. Good thing it was lifetime warranty.

Now inspect the threads, I'd bet (assuming a massive overtorque caused the sticking) they're stretched and bent over, looking like /| or |\ instead of /\

novaderrik wrote: you can find thin wall 1/2" sockets- the cheap ones are usually like this... i've found that my 245 pounds of manly mass jumping on the end of an 18" breaker bar will break even the most stubborn lug nuts loose..

I've broken them, and broken the nice 24" MAC 1/2" ratchet, just with my skinny little back pulling up on the ratchet.

It's kinda neat, the ratchet handle will flex something like 10-15 degrees before the ratchet head breaks off.

I exploded the guts out of a Matco 1/2" racher with a 6' cheater pipe. But it didn't break the handle.

The pivot is the weakest point on a flex-head MAC.

On a Cornwell, the ratchet mechanism itself is the weak point. I got fed up with breaking a ratchet every time I'd loosen a flywheel so I bought a MAC. At least when the handle breaks off, you are left with a nice palm ratchet until the tool guy comes around.

All I can say is you guys aren't pushing very hard then. I've shattered the heads and handles of many a 1/2" breaker bar or ratchet using several feet of pipe and nothing more than me pulling up. Snap-on, Craftsman, Husky, Matco, etc.

There's a time and a place for 3/4" drives. Even 1" drives some times.

foxtrapper wrote: All I can say is you guys aren't pushing very hard then. I've shattered the heads and handles of many a 1/2" breaker bar or ratchet using several feet of pipe and nothing more than me pulling up. Snap-on, Craftsman, Husky, Matco, etc. There's a time and a place for 3/4" drives. Even 1" drives some times.

This. I bought a 3/4" drive and 32mm socket after destroying two 1/2" breaker bars on an axle nut. No sweat with the big bar and a 6' pipe.

I've still got my original 1/2" 18" Snap on breaker bar, and I've had to change the end 3 or 4 times over the last 30 years, but the handle is original. I'm completely amazed at the quality of the steel in that thing- I have a jack handle that I use as a snipe, and I've gotten at least 45* of bend into the handle on lots of occasions. I always expect it to break, but the handle never has.

That's why I troll CL for old tools. Currently on the hunt for a shop vice....hoping for something from the 40s-50s.

Really, no one beat me to it yet?

^ ^ I was going to suggest a really big hammer, but thats a way cooler option.

In reply to Beer Baron:

wbjones beat you it by about 16 hours:

wbjones wrote: can't believe no one has mentioned it yet … SHOTGUN ftw

sometimes the best way to take off overly tightened lug nuts is to tighten them a little bit more until they break and just replace them...

So, you got your tires put on at the local RiceMart huh?

Last time this happened to me the lug & stud were sliced up with a Dremel-like tool and replaced.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Or get a HF 1/2" drive impact socket, chuck it in your drill with an adapter, clamp the drill in a vise, grab the angle grinder and ghetto toolpost grinder that bitch down till it fits

This would not end well. I've broken a 17mm HF 1/2 impact socket with an 18 breaker and my skinny little arms. I eventually broke every single one I used. Those things are junk.

""

this happens to me every time I take it to a shop and the wheel has to come off. They use "torque sticks" so this is not supposed to happen.

So I am in the habit of when I get home, I get out my 18" breaker bar and piece of pipe and retorque the wheel.

In reply to foxtrapper:

I have grenaded too many crapsman ratchets to mention.....my most impressive piece was bending a 6ft long 2" round solid pry bar that used to be used on a railroad for shifting rails. It still makes for one hell of a concrete breaker though.

Bring the car and a Tourane wrench to the place that put them on last. Make them pull every lug nut off with the same impact wrench that put them on in the first place...

Produce wrench and instruct the tech how to properly install them using the wrench.

To be honest, this seems like a weird problem to me. I've never run into a car that you couldnt just snap the stud on if the nut didn't turn. With reasonable effort, even. I can usually snap a wheel stud with a 4-way tire iron. Granted that's never my first choice option but it's better than spending time trying to get a nut off a stud that's going to be messed up anyway. I don't think i've ever run into a nut/stud that both wouldnt turn AND wouldnt snap.

Color me dubious that those studs are actually ok. Im with Kenny.. they're probably messed up and you just havent noticed yet.

In reply to itsarebuild:

I was recently shopping at a Discount Tire Center store and watched a changer install wheels with new tires on a car. He was very meticulous.

He made sure he went to the huge torque wall chart listing vehicles by make, model, & year. He found the car he was looking for, noted the torque and set the micrometer setting torque wrench.

He mounted all four wheels with a huge impact.

He got his torque wrench and pulled it on each lug nut till it clicked.

He told the customer he was done.

I asked the "manager" if that was the correct policy & he said yes and showed me the wall chart. The changer had done exactly as instructed on the chart! I tried to explain proper torquing procedures to the "manager." He told me they didn't have time to do the cross torque, double click, manual torque routine. Their policy was to make sure the lug nuts were tight enough to not fall off.

Needless to say, if I ever buy tires from them, I'll do the wheel to vehicle mounting myself!

^LOL that's hilarious!

I think I would have passed out in front of him trying not to laugh..... Or knocked my self out with a massive face palm....

In reply to Rupert:

I didn't know that was the actual policy! My first tire store experience was a bad experience and thankfully not mine. Friend makes a detour to Discount in his (ratty as all hell) 67 falcon to have a flat repaired. It was a nice day so we stood around the car in the bay and watched.

1. The guy on the tire machine was so damn incompetent that he bent the wheel and broke a (plastic, I previously though they were all metal) finger /spoon whatever its called. At this point I'm damn near on the floor pointing and laughing at this much incompetency. They straightened the wheel out of sight, god only knows what happened there.

2. Then on this old itty bitty studded 4 lug car they mounted the tire with an impact gun and then clicked a tq wrench on it to confirm they were at least tight. I'm surprised none broke off.

3. I didn't dare inspect the balancing job.

If it were my car at least two people in there probably would have been at least verbally pulverized. A berkeleying trained monkey could run a tire machine and change tires better than that.

Then there was the time at the Firestone on Woodward Ave, which sucks a big bag of dicks by the way. Where another friend had to get a new tire put on an AWD car, and they MOUNTED AND BALANCED A TIRE ON A MUDDY WHEEL. Then they redid it after much bitching and WE cleaned it, at which point we noticed they mounted a directional tire backwards.

Rupert wrote: He mounted all four wheels with a huge impact. He got his torque wrench and pulled it on each lug nut till it clicked. He told the customer he was done.

I bet they 'turn warped brake rotors,' too.

10' section of fencing pipe works great and is usually cheap