Puzzle Nut
Couple several years ago someone posted his klink showing how to make a puzzle nut for locking wheels on your car. Seems to me that he/wife/kids had lost the male driver and he had to make one. He went to great pains making it, possibly by making a casting of the female portion and then machining the male member.
I thought I had saved at least the link but can't seem to find it.
Do any of you remember this ? I would like some help here.
JDub
Chris
Thanks for the speedy reply. I'll give Don a shout.
JDub
It was Don Foreman I think: dforeman AT goldengate DOT net
Chris
It's back up. I'll leave it up for at least a few days.
Slick trick, McGurk. But after all that effort to save a $5 part, I'd just weld a hex nut onto the end of the puzzlenut, get the puzzlenut off, and be done with it. ;-) And buy a new set of locks.
If you look at the length of the studs on the trailer hub and did a bit of simple measuring of that puzzlenut, I'll bet there's a lot of meat between the end of the stud and the end of the nut head.
I'm not sure if that's all hollow and threaded, or solid metal, but either way I'd rank the "Eau Chitte" odds of welding the end of the stud rather low. Not impossible mind you, but then again I try not to piss off Murphy. There are many other things that can go wrong.
John: You /have/ to connect the welder ground cable to either the hub rear face or another wheel stud with a big ring lug - You do NOT want welding current going through the wheel bearings on it's way to the chassis. It's really bad for the bearings, which you'll find out about in a few weeks when the rumbling starts...
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You'd lose that bet, and I didn't want to risk it. I seriously did not want to have to pull the wheel. I tossed the nuts when I got them off, bought new ones and put the new key where I'll be able to find it.
Besides, it was an interesting challenge! We retired guys have time to enjoy projects like that.
Hi Bruce
Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate the one about welding current thru the bearing. I hadn't thought of thatone.
I recall something I read in a professional mag about the lack of a ground cable causing wheel bearings to go bad. Seems that charging current from the electrical system caused the bearings to literally burn due to the mechanic forgetting to reconnect the ground cable when he replaced the engine.
Eau Chitte ! GRANDE !!!!
As Don explained, retired people (and some of us who aren't) have more time than $$$$
I make time since I'm too poor to buy cheap....
JDub
Dunno about the wheel bearings, but a bad body ground'll make all the fins fall out of your radiator..
John
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