Been some discussion in RT bus circles about these and how good they are for getting off wheel nuts, even those not touched for years.

Problem is price ranges from £35 to £5000, with the professional ones coming in about £3-400.

I know Jim Pulllen has one and used it successfully on his RLH, but do any of the pros on here use them and would recommend one? David Thrower/Mike Lloyd have enthused about them in the FOLBOT newsletter but seem reluctant to recommend one.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458 RM 1585, (M 961, M 271 - both sold) and several RTs

Brian
I had to resort to using one to undo cone nuts from a bus that had been stood undercover but ex major bus co as clearly they were too tight and it was getting silly bordering dangerous to use tubed extensions on my wheel brace. We were fortunate to be able to borrow one overnight from another major busco through contacts working there.
It worked fine although we did get a few bangs as the nuts gave way to the applied torque.
I hardly ever use any type of air gun to do up wheel nuts and with my wheel key and 2 foot brace bar have even undone spiggot nuts, i think people mix up Ibft and Nm and transpose the figures hence nuts get done to 500 LbFt instead of 500Nm for example whne it should be 350 Lbft

Mark.

Ps it will also help if you used a six point socket rather than a 12 point ie a pure hex.

My bus number (if any): RM1414 sort of

Oh I agree Mark, our biggest problems have come from buses we have just bought that have had wheel studs hammered on by an air gun. However, we have had to use a massive ratchet and 2 metre scaffold tube with two people on it to "crack" some nuts, which they tell me can be undone with little effort with a torque multiplier.

AS I said, Jim Pullen has just used one to take off the wheels on his RLH, the one he bought in the USA is un-branded. Would like to know if any commercial outfits use them. I gather it is not recommended to do up nuts with them as they cab easily be massively over tightened.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458 RM 1585, (M 961, M 271 - both sold) and several RTs

I use the Sealey tools version regularly which costs under £100. This is 65 to 1 reduction for manual use only. So far it has lasted the best part of 2 years, if it failed tomorrow I would buy another.

The Norbar versions which are many times more expensive are a completely different kettle of fish which would require serious almost everyday usage. I see little point in buying the cheapest in the range since its torque capacity is insufficient for the other applicants such expense would demand. There are other cheaper ways of dealing with an overtightened nut.

Thanks Roy, that was just the sort of info I was looking for.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458 RM 1585, (M 961, M 271 - both sold) and several RTs

Hi Brian,

When I was researching them I looked at the Sealey branded units and they look good, though I suspect they probably all come from the same distributer.

Like I told you the other day I paid about the same as Roy did and I'm very happy with mine. With wheel nuts that were well and truly on and not moving after 30 or more years inactivity, the unit paid for itself almost immediately in less grief and swearing for me!

My bus number (if any): RLH62

I haven't used one but roy says his one works ok.

The only time I really needed one was in Germany a few years back, trying to undo front wheel nuts on an RM; one of the nuts was so tight I broke 2 socket sets trying to undo it; the tyre fitter broke a 1" drive socket; the second one he used shifted it, but the nut twisted itself!! I think it was on rather tight.

And this week in my tyre dealers in Ashford, they had a van with a tower on it, trying to undo rear wheel nuts. Nothing they had would shift them, so they had to call in the main dealer who had just relined the brakes to undo them. A while with the air gun and a very long bar moved them eventually.

Wheel nuts should never be that tight!

All them different tools seems to be a waste of money. I use them little plastic yellow pointy things. Every time I drive my bus I just turn them so they are pointing towards each other. No problem getting the wheels off when I need to, in fact it is often almost done for me!

Three wheels on my wagon, and I'm still rolling along............

My bus number (if any): RML2276 M1001 T806

Hello
Could you tell me what thread the wheel studs are on a routemaster as I am trying to get a die nut to repair some damaged threads.
Thanks
Iain

My bus number (if any): RM1807

I would have thought 11/16th BSF but I might be wrong!

My bus number (if any): RMF2771

7/8"bsf. A die nut will be expensive particularly if it is LH thread. You can get a British standard thread file relatively cheaply or obtain a 7/8" bsf wheelnut with the larger 1 15/16" AF head and cut angled slots across the threads in three places and thus make your own die nut.
Alternatively remove the stud and take it to an engineering machine shop for repair if the threads are not too bad.
.

A few years ago I found out just how powerful these Sealey ones can be. A well know major restorer and body shop had refitted the front wheels to a bus without noticing that the stud holes were oval. Not content with that and incidentally fitting the brake camshafts on the wrong side of the vehicle, they proceded to overtighten the wheelnuts. It needed a lot of effort to turn the torque multiplier handle, enough in fact to worry me that the gear casing might explode. Each nut came undone with a load bang, but three were particularly loud and violent.

Having removed the nuts I found that three had sheared at the junction of the hexagon and the cone. This left the wheels still held firmly in place by the remaining thread within the cone. The wear and ovality of the stud hole had allowed the cone of the nuts to jam.

Is that the bus that was down my old place? I remember it well.

My bus number (if any): RML2532

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458, RM 1585 and several RTs

Yes it was the same bus.

I haven't the foggiest idea how they tightened the wheelnuts, all I know is that they were too tight. A 1" burp gun wouldn't undo them so I resorted to a torque multiplier.

The expensive Norbar multipliers which have a 1/2" or 3/4" square drive input are meant to be used for tightening. One just inputs force with a torque wrench set to the correct division factor. So a 4:1 multiplier would need the torque wrench set to 250 lbft to achieve 1000 lbft output torque.

I won't mention the occasions when one could use a Sealey type wind up multiplier sensibly for tightening, because of the possibility of a future reader attempting to use internet crystal-ball-advice about a problem, as professional instructions for which the writer should be held legally accountable in their misguided opinion.

When I went to Narbonne to help with the pick up of RM 48, the experienced driver tried everything possible to try and undo the front wheel nuts, we even checked the threads to see if some berk had put the wrong studs in and we were trying to tighten them!
In the end we had to take the tyres off!
Rob Duker will testify to how tight they were as he couldn't shift them nor a professional tyre fitting firm either, must have been a very powerful air gun to tighten them up, or four blokes leaning on a 10ft pole :)

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458, RM 1585 and several RTs

Hi Roy
Thanks for the info on the thread size, I got a die nut for the RH thread and got of by dressing the LH .
Regards
Iain

My bus number (if any): RM1807