Changing wheel studs

In case anyone is unaware, a $20 ball joint separator is the perfect tool for removing/replacing wheel studs.

 

Haha. What I did was had my mom spin it in with the breaker bar while I held onto it to stop it from turning with the tire iron and sorta stood/pushed on it with my foot

 

An air hammer pushed them out like butter.

 

We don't all have compressors. And honestly, I would have had these out long before I even uncoiled the air hose.

 

Lug nut and hammer .. much faster

 

To put them IN?

 

Damn. I’ll be honest I thought they had to twist in for some reason. I guess just looking at it and understanding what I was doing would have proven otherwise. This would have taken a lot less effort. Oh well!

 

Just replace the wheel bearing. Seems much easier than trying to get the studs out

 

Now you know if you need to do again

 

Wtf?

It took all of 20 minutes. Not to mention the cost difference.

I think you're doing something wrong.

 

I didnt know that, till now. But no, i can easily beat you with my pancake compressor and air hammer - you may beat me to the first stud while it airs up . For less than $200, you can get such a compressor, air hammer, and air hammer bits. It will come in useful for many other things.

Wheel studs are not on the bearing assembly. They are on a hub that presses into the wheel bearing assembly. But if replacing the wheel bearing, it is easy to press out the studs all at once if you have a press.

 

I'm good, thanks. Never needed an air compressor. And when I had one, I preferred not to use it. I'll save my money. And if you're smart, you buy the whole assembly, which has wheel studs. But I'm not spending $320 to replace wheel studs.

Aside from that, I was primarily talking about install more than removal.

 

I just did one on mine in 20 minutes (including jacking the truck up and pulling the wheel) with a hammer for removal of the broken stud, and an oversized nut for the lug nut to pull against and a breaker bar. Total cost was just shy of $7.

Ugga dugga machines are for girly men!

 

You did just fine with what you have.

 

I've actually used that method in the past, and there's a tool Lisle sells that's basically a spacer bearing. But the heat generated from pulling in with the threads, and the unnecessary stress in the threads never made me feel super confident.

 

Trick is to not do it in one pull, tighten to "this is getting really difficult", back off and retighten and the stud will pull in a bit more, lather rinse repeat. No over torque or heat, and you don't kill yourself.

 

Yea, I'm sure it's fine, I've been doing it that way for years. This $20 tool made it surprisingly easy, without even exerting much torque, so I thought I'd share. Hell, the torque was so little that my 12 year old daughter held the hub still with just her hands.

 

I liked it OP!

 

Pretty good idea.

I used a c-frame press to replace mine.

 

Have you tried the Lisle tool on the Tacoma? My Lisle tool didn't fit, because the wheel stud is too close to the 108mm hub center register. Ended up pulling it in with an open-ended lugnut flipped around, so the flat face sits against the hub flange to keep the stud square. Just grease the threads to reduce friction, but be sure to degrease the threads after you're done.