Alan,
re: using the Dremel. Been there. It works. It ain't pretty. It
was a combination Dremel groves into those funky nuts and a big pipe
wrench.
A better alternative is to drive the car to one of your friendly local
tire dealerships(probably with title in hand) and have them take them
off. Someone told me they have a handy generic lock nut remover that
fits on their impact wrenches that'll do the job. My TR4A wasn't
rolling.
Bob
'74 TR6
'67 TR4A
----------
From: Alan Coleman[SMTP:alanco@sybase.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 1996 11:32 AM
To: triumphs@autox.team.net; british-cars@autox.team.net
Cc: self
Subject: Removing "Locking Style" Lug Nuts
Hi folks,
I just acquired a 1964 TR4, CT32768 (note significance of the commission number
for
a computer programmer!). Hasn't been registered for 8 years, but seems in good
mechanical shape. Compression 175, 175, 180, 175, oil PSI good. Transmission
and
diff seem solid. Clutch and brakes work, but I'll be going through them. Kind
of
runs, even on 8-year-old gas. Rusted floor pans and outer sills, but otherwise
just has surface rust on the underside and a bit on the body here and there.
Various things don't work, like heater controls, wipers, horns, but I suspect
most
of that's just time-frozen. Has HS6's on it, and a bodged-up monza exhaust. A
lot
of the rubber is trash - windshield gasket, door glass gasket, etc - but it
seems
to have all the various bits, trim, chrome, etc, and all that is in pretty good
shape. The interior's not too bad either. Supposedly always been a California
car.
It seems like a good candidate for rolling restoration. A basically solid car
that
needs a thorough going-over. I paid $3700 - did I get taken?
Now the real quesion:
One of the first things I need to do is remove the wheels. Unfortunately, it
has
those locking lug nuts on it and I am missing the funky little key for one
wheel.
The lug nuts are smooth round chrome on the outside with a little funny pattern
cut
into the end. The key is a lug nut with a ridge in the same pattern as the
nut.
Insert the ridge into the slot and turn, you remove the nut. You've seen them
before, I'm sure.
So how to get it off without the key?? I came up with the idea of Dremelling
(oooh, Dremel tool...) the outside of the round nut into an hex nut, then
taking it
off with a wrench. That will take a while, so if anybody has a better idea,
I'd
love to hear it. Can't get a vise grip to stay on the damn thing, even with
some
dremelling already done, and I don't want to damage the wheels (they're Dan
Girling
Specials, some kind of vintage alloy wheels).
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
AC
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