How big of a press do I need for pressing wheel studs in/out? Money is tight, so even though I'm sure I'll use it for other things, I don't want to buy one that's too much more than I need for this specific job.

Will a 6-ton work, or should I step up to a 12-ton? Bigger?

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vm

This one is the cheapest decent quality one you can get right now. There are a ton of good reviews for the 20 ton and a ton of bad reviews for the 15 ton. I picked this 20 ton one up a few months ago and it's already paid for itself after one suspension rebuild. You don't want to get anything smaller because at some point you'll probably need something pressed that wont work on a smaller one and you'll end up paying the same amount of money that you tried to save by getting a cheaper press.

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-sho ... 32879.html

Removal=hammer
Installation=spare flat lug nut and small bearing/greased washers

Look very closely at the stud before trying to remove them from the hub. If you see 4 little fingers spaced every 90 degrees, then your studs are swedged in and should not be pressed out. you have to cut off the swedging or you run the risk of destroying the hub.

I have a small ball bearing designed to be used in puller that I use to pull the wheel stud into the hubs. But I have seen guys use a stack of greased washer between the lug nut and the hub instead of a bearing. Use steel wheel lug flipped flat side towards hub with an impact gun to pull the stud in place.

I'm VERY worried about damaging the hub if I pound the old studs out. I tried that once with a front brake drum and destroyed the drum. The studs were not swedged, either. And these Kelsey Hayes disc hubs aren't easy to find...

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vm

I've found that wheel studs came out best with a big hammer; Mopar friends who tried a press told me it caused distortion.

+1 on whacking the old studs out with a hammer, but I highly recommend a press to put new ones in. I have replaced several studs using the washer and flipped lug nut and it is a PITA. If you can afford it, get a press.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

What do you mean washer and flipped lug nut? I've always just pushed the new stud in as far as possible and then put a lug nut on it and slowly tightened it down until it pulled the stud all the way through. Is that the incorrect way?

That is what I mean, but I didn't use grease or an air gun, I just used a lug wrench and muscle.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

It takes much more force to pull a wheel stud into place by it's threads than you'll ever torque a lug nut to. Pulling them in using the stud's threads is not a good way to go. Broken studs are often because of over-torquing them and here you're deliberately doing this.

Much better to drive them in, be it with a press or with a big hammer and a big drift punch.

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Thom

Cross-threaded is tighter than Lock-tite

When I use my bearing/nut combo and my impact I still use a 100 ft lbs torque stick between the gun and the socket. So it might apply a little more than 100 ft lbs, but not by much. As long as you are using the proper size of stud it should not take an excessive amount of force and should not damage the threads. Usually when someone snaps a lug nut/stud off they are using either a lot of leverage or they are using an unregulated impact and hammering the nut.

It is not directly the torque that is the problem. It is the tension in the stud from the torque. When they fail the studs usually do twist off, however that event is not what typically started their failure. Over-torquing, be it from pulling them in with a nut or in use, starts most stud failures by yielding them in the thread root due to exceeding the yield strength of the stud material. If you never go over the max torque for the particular alloy then you probably won't yield the stud, but you may not also get the stud to seat either.

According to this engineering ref page (http://www.engineershandbook.com/Tables/torque.htm) the max torque for a Grade 8, 7/16 bolt is 78 ft-lbs, dry. I chose 7/16 because that is the stud size that I just installed in my '65 Valiant; and I chose Grade 8 because it is the strongest std bolt grade though I have no idea how the alloy used in wheel studs compares.

Lubrication in the threads will increase the clamp load at the same torque, which is more tension in the bolt and will push the metal past it's yield point if the torque value is for dry threads and is not reduced for lubricated threads. In this case using lubrication in the threads works against the durability of the stud.

When without the use of my press I drive them in with a hammer and a drift punch rather than risking a future stud failure.

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Thom

Cross-threaded is tighter than Lock-tite

hammer out, and use a 3/8" or 1/2" entension with the disc hub on some wood blocks on the work bench, line up the new stud and gently tap it in

-Mike

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I am the Guardian, I hate helos, everything leaks.......