> On the subject of wire wheels that go bump in the night.
> A few years back I had to remove a set of Borrani Knock
> off wheels that had rusted themselves firmly in place. (That is,
> Sometimes the best tool to use is the one sitting on your shoulders.
This reminds we of my "foolish" youth when I owned an Italian car,
namely an Alfa 1300 GTV Bertone ( I have since found my sanity an
own only British cars !!!!). I had the car only a couple of weeks and
I wanted to check the state of the barke pads/shoes.
So I jacked one side of the, removed both wheels, inspected the relevent
parts, everything okay, so I jacked up the other side of the car.
I tried to remove the wheel studs and curiously none of them would come off.
So out came the WD-40. Soaked the wheel nuts, and waited a few minutes,
tried to unbolt the nuts agan, still none of them would move.
"Mmmmmm" I thought to myself, "may be they are REALLY rusted on."
Sprayed some more WD-40 and let it soak in overnight. Came back the next
morning, tried to loosen the nuts, still nothing!!!.
If all fails, read the manual - no clue, just the phrase
"In order to inspect the brake linings, first remove the wheel .."
Phoned up my brother, and he suggested heating the wheel nuts slightly so
as to break the rust bond. Out came the plumber's torch, heated the wheel
nuts up slightly, tried to loosen the nuts again, still nothing.
About half an hour later my brother rings me back,
"That's an Alfa you have isn't it ?", "Yes", came reply,
"It may be an opposite thread" he suggested.
Return to the garage for the Nth time that day, I tried
"tightening" the wheel nuts and hey presto they come off !!!!
As was suggesteed in a recent posting :
> Sometimes the best tool to use is the one sitting on your shoulders.
This happened recently when I wanted to remove the large nuts holding the
rear wheel bearings on the Midget. The manual I don't makes mention that
one of them is an opposite thread !
Gerry (12/18).
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