B Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET> writes:

> My mechanic must have set his torque wrench set on "bolt sieze" as it
> took forever to get the lug nuts off my rear wheels to put on the
> snows.  I ended put striping one of the bolts good. Real good. Is that
> something I can go get a tool for at Sears hardware or should I just
> wait until the shop opens and bring it over this week?

The tire shops will often use a pneumatic impact wrench to put the nuts
back on.  THEN they will take the torque wrench out and go around the
car "clicking" it on each nut, which is of course a useless formality at
that point.

I always back off the nuts and re-torque them properly when I get home
if I have any doubt about what the shop did.  Use a properly sized
six-sided socket for this to reduce the chance of stripping.

You can use a bit of anti-sieze or parafin wax on the threads, but be
careful to NOT get any on the seat surfaces -- that's what holds your
wheels on!

As far as getting the nut off, Sears does sell a tool that "bites" into
a stripped nut or bolt head -- I've never tried it myself.  I'd probably
first try to see if the tire shop can get it off, I imagine they have to
deal with this fairly often.

Allan
--
1991 Vanagon GL