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Help-wheels spacers stuck!!!!!!!!!!

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Old 03-07-2012, 09:47 AM
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Default Help-wheels spacers stuck!!!!!!!!!!

anyone have any suggestions to take off wheel spacers. i need to change my rotors but the damn spacers are stuck on.
i took all the nuts off and sprayed alot of wd-40 and hammered them with a rubber mallet but that shit wont come off.
the only other thing i could think of is to heat them up
Old 03-07-2012, 09:53 AM
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I am sorry you are having problems, but others need to be aware of this as it has been in the Forum before and one reason I went with different wheels with correct back spacing and avoided spacers .... good luck with your removal, if I remember the last guy to have problems heated them up.
Old 03-07-2012, 09:55 AM
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Originally Posted by mikegp
anyone have any suggestions to take off wheel spacers. i need to change my rotors but the damn spacers are stuck on.
i took all the nuts off and sprayed alot of wd-40 and hammered them with a rubber mallet but that shit wont come off.
the only other thing i could think of is to heat them up
As I don't know how or what else to tell you on how to get them off, I can tell you that heating them up would be an extremely bad idea. If you happen to heat them up too much, you may warp them or even weaken the aluminum, thus possibly resulting in a catastrophic result. These essentially hold your tires on, do you really wanna mess with them like that and heat them up? Think about it...

Last edited by FoxRacingJMC; 03-07-2012 at 12:04 PM.
Old 03-07-2012, 10:00 AM
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Heat is your freind
Old 03-07-2012, 10:01 AM
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WD/40 is a great product for surface, Try some other products, PB Blaster works great for deeply rusted/stuck items such as this. most automotive shops prefer it over wd/40 as it just has a tenancy to work better. I would spray the hell out of it with pb blaster, let it set an hour, hit it again with some pb blaster then soak for about another 20-30 minutes then go back at it. you possibly might need to use an actual hammer rather then a rubber mallet if the rubber Mallet wont work. yes I understand you risk messing up your spacers. but if you need them off you need them off.

worst comes to worse heat them up. just dont do to much, as stated above you do risk messing them up.
Old 03-07-2012, 10:03 AM
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so soak some more with some other than wd then hit some more ill try it out!!!

in terms of heat i seam to be getting mixed responses, how bad would it be to the spacer if i heat just to warm and not to make it
extremely hot

ps please keep the suggestions coming

thx
Old 03-07-2012, 10:12 AM
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Originally Posted by mikegp
so soak some more with some other than wd then hit some more ill try it out!!!

in terms of heat i seam to be getting mixed responses, how bad would it be to the spacer if i heat just to warm and not to make it
extremely hot

ps please keep the suggestions coming

thx
I guess its a matter of opinion on how you want to get it off, and also that maybe I'm a little one-sided because I DONT run spacers, but when you heat up any metal(especially aluminum which is normally what spacers are made of and absorbs heat more/quicker than other metals), that's when they become plyable and susceptible to warping, sagging, drooping, whatever term you wanna use to explain the change in its original shape/form. So again, why would you risk that when it is in fact a VERY key element in you NOT LOSING YOUR TIRE AND KILLING YOURSELF! haha...

I mean, why not just keep at it with PB blaster and WD-40, what about lithium grease if you can work it in there? if worse comes to worse, bang em up to get em off and just go with new ones....

Last edited by FoxRacingJMC; 03-07-2012 at 11:26 AM.
Old 03-07-2012, 11:25 AM
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If you plan to re-use them and they are aluminum, heat is a bad idea. It takes very little heat to anneal (soften) aluminum. I am sure others will disaggree but if was my rig I would not use heat (or spacers).
Old 03-07-2012, 11:27 AM
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Originally Posted by SilverBolt
If you plan to re-use them and they are aluminum, heat is a bad idea. It takes very little heat to anneal (soften) aluminum. I am sure others will disaggree but if was my rig I would not use heat (or spacers).
I'm on your side.... as I posted the same reasoning above...
Old 03-07-2012, 11:56 AM
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Ill post again. Two scenarios:

1) you want to reuse the spacers: In this case PB Blaster the hell out of them and rubber mallet them off. They will come, just need to be patient.

2) you do not want to reuse the spacers: heat them up and pry them off or take a hammer to them and beat them off.


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