impact wrench

Habbi-

I've got a Chevy 1/2 ton that also has a left rear wheel I haven't been able to get off with a Ingersol-Rand 1/2" impact wrench. The right rear came off, but only after a lot of time with full force on the impact.

The last time the wheels were torqued was at a tire shop, so they may have hit them too hard in my case.

However, I have aluminum wheels on my truck and I'm wondering if an interaction between the steel lug nuts and aluminum wheels has caused them to "corrode weld" together, does your truck have aluminum wheels also?

Paul T.

one time i had a problem with the brake drums on my nissan pick up sticking SO tightly, instead of wailing on them with a sledge hammer to get them off, i cut them in half with an angle grinder to get them off. determined to never have that happen again i put silicone gasket sealer on the mating surfaces, figured it would be a bad idea to put anti-seize or grease on a brake drum. it seemed to work ok the next time i had to take the brake drums off. (i also tapped two holes into the drum to run two bolts into to push against the axle and act like a "remover") i'm wondering if instead of grease or anti-seize would it be acceptable to use silicone gasket sealer on the lug nuts/studs so it won't "lubricate" the bolts but would, hopefully, keep the water out to prevent corrosion.

b.w.

Change your tyre shop, no air tools are permitted where I go.

All nuts are tightened by hand with a 4 way. Also I get free rotation and balancing for the life of the tyre, will go in after new year for my 90,000 km change, I will certainly get over 100k from this set. Matthew (owner) has trebled his workforce in the 10 years I have known him because of his emphasis on customer service and satisfaction. Had to go there today to get a new tube for the tractor front wheel. $18 Oz, fitted, - as the rim was a bit rusty it was sandblasted and fitted with new rim seal for that price. Alan in beautiful Golden Bay, Western Oz, South 32.25.42, East 115.45.44 GMT+8 VK6 YAB ICQ 6581610 to reply, change oz to au in address

I have an old IR 231 which has lost its poop. I also have a 3/8" butterfly wrench that has lost its poop.

Where can I get these rebuilt or can i order the rebuild kits and do it myself.

Al

Would you guys using Outhouse Express please watch how the quotes are getting mangled? Turn off word wrap for quoted text, or turn it off totally and wrap by hand...

But if you were using it all day, every day, you could spring for a pro-level gun from Ingersoll-Rand or such. The decent cheapies will live a long time in weekend service if properly cared for.

If a gorilla at the tire store cranks them on to 100 yard-tons ;-) with a Pro gun, they are not going to budge without a similar force being exerted to loosen - that or a 'hot wrench' or a nutcracker.

The oil that goes in the air inlet line is to lubricate the air motor section, and is a 'total loss' system - the oil will be carried out the exhaust. If you want to forget about adding a few drops of oil each use you can run a mist oiler in-line, but be sure to keep the tool hoses (with the oil residue inside) separate from the car painting hoses where oil in the air is a Very Bad Thing.

The "OIL" plug on the front of the gun is for the reduction gear section and probably the hammer system. It's supposed to be sealed inside, but as we all know "Leakproof Seals Will."

For the type and weight oil in the gearbox, and how much you need to add, Read The Friendly Manual for the maintenance instructions... They're probably here:

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I went to the CH site and the instructions for my gun show a picture of where the "oil plug" is and that is it, no more mention of it anywhere.

Yes it has the aluminum wheels, I tried my father in laws gun which is rated at 425ftlbs and they came off with it agian mine was only rated at 380 ftlbs.

I had a HF cheapo that worked for most things, but would not loosen lug nuts for anything. It was rated at "Max 260 Foot Pounds of torque". After a few years, I gave it to my son and bought a used Ingersol Rand wrench that was rated at "450 Foot Pounds". Same thing. I took the IR apart, figuring that something must be wrong inside, but it was clean as a whistle with no apparent wear. The only thing I can figure out is that I have too much hose on my shop setup. Either wrench was fine for tightening lug nuts up, but neither would loosen them. I always have to use a breaker bar. I was really surprised that the IR wouldn't work better.

One thing that people miss is the fact that many 1/2" impacts call for a 1/2" hose. That and the standard quick coupling used is just like adding a flow control. In the average situation with 3/8" hose and quick couplings you'll have to run a higher pressure than the gun is rated for just to get the rated pressure at the gun when it's running.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

for a 1/2" hose. That and the standard quick coupling used is just like adding a flow control. In the average situation with 3/8" hose and quick couplings you'll have to run a higher pressure than the gun is rated for just to get the rated pressure at the gun when it's running.<

The way to check this is by the pressure drop. Put a pressure gage at the end of the air delivery line at, or near, the gun (or screwdriver, etc.) and observe the difference between pressure at rest and pressure running. On a well designed and operating system you should see very little difference. I'd tell my customers if they saw 5 pounds or higher drop they needed to attend to either the capacity of the compressor or the diameter of the air lines (etc.) for the machine. It was surprising to me how many problems were "restriction" related on machines which previously had no such problem.

dennis in nca

On 12 Dec 2005 21:55:09 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, "rigger" quickly quoth:

Like the guy on a 25hp system capable of 75 CFM through a 1.5" main line coupled to a 100' 3/8" air hose and ending with a 1/4" 90° angle whip. Why was the whip there for use with his 3/4" impact wrench at a truck tire shop? "It's lighter."

- They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it. -Confucius ---

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One thing about impact guns is that a loose/worn socket or a worn nut will cause a lot of bounce. You'll jiggle the socket around a whole lot, and get it warm, but never get anywhere. A way to counteract it is to violate the safety warnings and grab the socket by hand (I wear a leather glove while doing it) and manually twisting it and holding it in the direction you want to go. Then hammer on it. That way you'll get the most force directly into the fastener when the hammer hits. More air pressure actually won't get you that much more kick out of an impact. It'll just deplete your air tank more quickly and be louder. I own some Ingersoll-Rand impacts, but plan to migrate over to Chicago Pneumatic eventually. But either brand is better than the walmart brand if you need the extra force.

Thank you for the follow up.

That is funny, the friends gun I borrowed to try was a Chicago pneumatic

734H http://212.75.80.201/CPIndustrialSite/Article/Article_Page.asp?Id=T024351and it seems weaker than my CH. I just checked their website and it is rated at 576 ftlbs max. He got it used, it must be worn out.

That's 576 Newton-Meters = 424.778 ft/lbs. You should count on full power in reverse and partial power in fwd. Specs are frequently lies. Go with a solid name brand such as IR and don't worry. A 5 gallon tank at 110psi should give you around 4 sec. of full power if fed at 8cfm by a compressor (check how long you can run the gun in seconds before the tank pressure drops below 100psi.).....then you have to wait for the compressor to run and reach cutoff before you pull the trigger again.

1/2" impacts eat up to 25cfm for full power.

There is no problem about taking the lugs off with an impact wrench but when putting them back on aluminum rims your best to use a speed wrench to get the lugs on ,if the rim was machined from a solid piece of billet they can take the beating ok ,but if it is the factory rims those are cast aluminum rims and they don't take well to excessive poundage very well or the force exerted by impact wrenches,over time putting them on like that the rims will develop small spider cracks which will develop into a catastrophic failure ,and I've seen what a vehicle looks like after something like that happens ,you really don't want to know . Now there was one guy that i used to know years back that had a customer come in and when he took the one wheel off he noticed the spider cracks ,well he went around pulled the other wheels off and all of them were cracked ,well he called the customer and told him his rims needed replaced well the customer refused to hear it so my buddy told him to come and get it he wasn't working on it and that he better bring a flat bed other wise it wasn't leaving on those rims the customer said he was gonna call the cops then,and my buddy said go ahead I'll show him the damage to the rims ,he said the next morning the flat bed showed up and my buddy made him sign the paperwork that he was notified that the rims were damaged and from there the guy left unhappy but least my buddy did everything in his power for the guy's safety so it was all on him then. And also think of this too ,if there is an accident and the cause of it is due to the way you remounted your wheels on the vehicle they do not have to pay you one red cent and you could be looking at some serious legal problems ,I'm just doing this to keep you all safe ,I already been thru one incident of a wheel coming off a full size SUV right after I passed them just literally a few seconds before just happen to see him slam into the barrier in my rearview mirror and saw the tire flying off into the opposite lanes a second before he hit it's an experience I hope none of you go thru and I really don't want to go thru again I may not be so lucky next time ,and I hope noone I care about is involved in something like that ,so just remember your family is out there you friends and their family is out there what can you do to protect them as much as possible . See you guys around and good luck

Good comments that the industry really doesn't want the public to read about. AL wheels are goddawful expensive for the risk you take driving them down the road. Bugs

It IS true. Wheel studs aren't the same mechanism as ball screws. I sold wheels and studs and all the associated parts for everything from small cars up to earthmoving equipment for nine years, and those studs, as with any tensile fastener, have some stretch to them and that stretch is dependent on nut torque. The stretch is within the yield limit of the metal, and overtorquing pulls them past that and into the ultimate range where they lose their elasticity and either promptly lose their tightness and come loose, or snap under driving stresses and let the wheel go. When properly torqued, they maintain friction agains the wheel and prevent the nut's loosening. The same principle is used on many engine connecting rods, where the only means of preventing their loosening is the stud's stretch. No locknuts or washers, no cotter pins, no nothing. Even in the aircraft engines I work on now. Adding Never-Seize to the threads reduces the torque requirement by as much as 40%. Easy to overtorque the nuts in that case. Don't use the stuff on the conical nut/wheel interface. Stuck steel nuts on aluminum rims can be caused by galling of the aluminum. As the nut is tightened and pressure between the steel and aluminum comes up, the steel drags a bit of the aluminum and creates a barbing effect that will resist nut reversal. The nuts need to be new or have really smooth cone faces. Ideally, a hard nut would be best. I've come across cheap nuts that are soft enough to suffer even against aluminum, never mind steel.

Dan