Locking Wheel Nut Removal
 

Hi all, got these blasted locking wheel nuts on my car and the garage changing my tires have said the key snapped and is now unable to remove them!

Any advice on what to do now?

Many thanks in advance!

factory jeep lock nut? a flat head screw driver removed them. Just tighten up the other nuts and use a flat head screw driver on the lock nut. ive done it countless times

Sacrifice a socket on it, find one thats a tight fit and pound it on there.

That's the best way to do it unless you can get a set of vice grips onto it.

Thanks for your replies!
So i tried the old knock a socket on trick but mine appear to be the McGard style locking wheel nuts (i believe they must be after market) which have a rotating collar on the outside. Anyway long story short the socket is now stuck on the locking wheel nut :mad:
On further investigation there are companies that specialise in this and are mobile but they only seem to be in the UK. Do they seem to suffer from this problem more than anywhere else?
I have read now that the only thing left is to get it to a garage that can weld the rotating collar to the centre to be able to remove it.

For reference to the companies providing this service its http://www.lockingwheelnutremovers.co.uk they seem to make their own tools. Does anyone know of a company over here that does similar?

What about a locksmith? They specialise in opening things with locks - surely a locking wheel nut wouldn't pose too much of a challenge for them ...

If you can get an angle grinder in there and cut a slit, then just use a piece of metal or large screwdriver and undo it.

If the nut is accessible a chisel can be used to tap them around till they loosen, I've had to remove that type of lock nut before for somebody, where it was recessed into an alloy wheel.

I managed to get the spinning outer ring off. I'll have started with chisels, but can't remember if ended up using my die grinder too. Once it was off I used a reverse spiral cut socket smacked onto it, then removed it with an air impact wrench.

This is the sort of socket I used, I don't know how easy you'll find them down under.

http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...5025b42b19.jpg

If the socket is stuck on the outer ring and spinning, best I could suggest would be welding something to it so it can be removed using a slide hammer.

As an aside, I have the McGard non spin ring type on my TJ. I replaced them with normal nuts when I got a new set of tyres once, as I didn't want to risk damage to the key. When I got it back I tried removing the nuts to torque them all properly and refit the lock nuts. They were so tight I got out a Chinese digital torque gauge I used to have and max torque trying to remove one was over 300 lb.ft at which point the gauge packed in.

My 1/2" air gun wouldn't undo some of them and I had to resort to a 3/4" gun to get those off. Luckily non of the treads were damaged on nuts or studs. I'm sure glad all my nuts are McGard as I think cheaper nuts would have damaged threads at those levels of torque.

If the key snapped, just weld it back together.
If its a steel wheel its easier to get something on the lock nut as its not recessed.

I had the same on the spare, so I used a 19mm socket. Get a decent weight nylon mallet and give it a few solid whacks until the mcgard no longer spins. This is the only way I could get it done.
I used this mallet, and the cheapest short socket at bunnings.
https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/...050309#start=3

Take another go at it, but really hit that socket onto the nut...

yep, just smash off any stuck socket, then (carefully) weld that b!tch up

then weld another lug nut or socket on

i hate those friggin things

if its real bad, you can weld up the thing and break the stud out of the wheel
with a 6ft breaker bar

managed to get them off! :D
A garage close to me welded a rod onto them and then used a pair of stilsons to remove them. All off in around 1 hour!
Thank you for all who replied.

It's good to hear it worked out for you.