Can't get rear wheels off

Discussion in 'Mech Tech' started by mgbman, Jul 5, 2019.

  1. The local garage turned out to have a poor reputation. Talked to a nice chap near me who is lucky and rich enough to have 2 vans, a splitty and an prototype bay. We got talking about our vans as you do and I asked if he knew the local garage and he told me not to use them as they really only do modern cars and he took his bay there once and they messed it up.

    So I have decided to go with plan B first and get the tyre place to pry the old wheels off and put my nice new ones on.

    Then in October when things are quieter its plan A. The van is going to my son's mate Paul at the Medway MOT Centre in Rainham, Kent as he knows our vans and has a good reputation, to do the spring plates job.
     
  2. Quick update, tyre place couldn't help. So decided to do it myself now I understand how the stock spring plates work.

    Did a test run today. Started on drivers side, jacked up van on rear tube axle, axle stands for my safety.

    With the wheel well off the ground the spring plate to lower stop gap is 1.5 cm.

    As an oldie with not much muscle power I thought trying a scissor jack may work.

    Bit tight but I wanted to slide the jack from the rear between the control arm and the chassis rail.

    Defeated a bit by the butterfly wings on the jack base preventing me from using the strong safe option.

    I did manage to locate the jack between the control arm and chassis bracing plate (with the holes in) and winding the jack, the spring plate comes down and got it to a 0.8 cm gap, but still not enough to get the wheel off.

    I chickened out at this point as I worried the bracing plate which is quite thin, may collapse under the force.

    So, joy, I know I can do it myself.

    But, need to chop the wings off the jack base for clearance.

    Could this be done with an angle grinder, if so I could ask a garage to do it for me.

    Any other ideas?
     
  3. mikedjames

    mikedjames Supporter

    Try a G cramp pulling the plate down or put the jack in between the bump stop and the hub carrier.

    Sash clamp or a stock lead screw type jack ?


    Deflate the tyre ?

    My 185/65R15 on EMPI 5 style alloys do come off( just )at. 0.7 cm gap on the bottom stop of the suspension. Which is where the suspension rests with wheels off the ground.
     
  4. Good ideas thanks. Tried the cutdown bump stop but gap too small for scissor jack at its lowest. I would need to pull the bump stop off to get the jack in the gap but is the carrier strong enough, looks a bit fragile, its new metal but worried the force may break it off. Looks weaker than the bracing plate I tried today which I was afraid of breaking.

    Chassis rail and control arm are strong and beefy so focussed on that option.

    The G clamps idea sounds good, I have a couple and will try them.

    The scissor jack I have is a Halfords one with screw going horizontal.

    The new wheels are stock and tyres are 185R/14C Firestone Vanhawks as on the front.
     
  5. Still struggling, G clamp didn't work for me mr. no muscles, so tried the scissor jack again today, between control arm and chassis rail, by hacksawing the butterfly wings off for clearance around the hub carrier bolt. The chassis rail is curved, but scissor jack horizontal so hard to fit. Its very close but may give up and try plan B.

    Plan B is jack between cut down bump stops and hub carrier. Not enough room to squeeze jack in. So need to remove the bump stop.

    How do I remove the bump stop without hurting my muscles?
     
  6. Dubs

    Dubs Sponsor supporter extraordinaire

    The bump stops just pull off, although can be quite tight at first. Maybe see if you can squirt some wd between the metal and the rubber, and waggle it a lot.

    Personally, I think a big bar is easier though. Maybe collar your neighbour to pull the wheel out while you operate the lever. :thinking:
     
  7. From memory, the rear bump stops just pull off. Give ‘em a twist (and shout if necessary).
     
    Dubs and mgbman like this.
  8. Stopped raining this afternoon and the sun came out, so had another go at those rear wheels. Its good news, I now have both new rear wheels and tyres installed, not before time as the old Marshall 2 ply car tyres were well past their use by date.

    I decided to stick with the scissor jack approach and located it between the control arm at the hub carrier end and chassis rail, after cutting some metal off the jack wings. The scissor jack handle supplied was no good at all and I used a big adjustable spanner on the turning end and it was manageable for me and worked well. I kept turning and little by little the spring plate came down and at 3mm above bottom stop I could get the wheel off easily and the new went on same. Did the other side the same method.

    During the winter, I plan to do a proper job and adjust the spring plates correctly, probably 1 spline up , so I don't have to keep doing this scissor jack business.

    I want to do it myself and know how to do it, but will definitely need to get local garage to slacken off and torque up after, the hub carrier bolts.

    Thank you all for your help and advice and I am still learning and at my age still doing it.
     
    mikedjames, paradox, mcswiggs and 5 others like this.
  9. I might have to do this on mine which is lowered by 2 splines
     
    mgbman likes this.
  10. I was lucky, the rear shocks are stock so extended enough, so didn't need to remove them. Another funny thing, obvious really, is to jack the wheels off the ground enough, as when the spring plate is jacked down, the wheel may touch the ground which happened to silly me, made me laugh.
     
  11. Got there in the end :thumbsup:
     
    matty and mgbman like this.
  12. Now I need to get on with getting those calliper bolts off. Jack on a spanner sounds the best method. These days I have to find out the method which needs the least energy or muscle power.
     

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