if you are a low tech guy you can just beat them out with a hammer
if you are a high tech guy you can use a press

 

Holy crap! Wheel flew off going 65? How did you not die in a huge ball of fire? Youre lucky you didnt get hurt.

I 2nd hammer.

 

Si Amigo! A big hammer!

 

x4 hammer, + gloves + ear plugs = win.

 

I seat the new stud, take a couple of heavy duty thick washers, put them over the threads, then put the lug on and hit it with the impact gun.

Viola

Yard

 

i say buy a whole new wheel bearing & wheel bearing bolts...the top one looks pretty mangled anyway.

 

I called the dealership this morning and they put the 3 bolts aside for me to pick up on the way home from work. The two lower bolt tips are messed up, but I can cut that portion off to back the bolt out.
The upper most bolt tail is completely sheared off and I'm not sure how that is going to work trying to unbolt it.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

The issue is not knocking the studs loose....it is getting them out of that plate. They are too long and bump the area behind them, which does not allow the studs to pull all the way out of the holes.
I can cut some length off of them to get them out, but that still won't fix the issue of getting the new studs into place.

It was a scary, but amazing all at the same time. I watched the tire continue to roll ahead of me as my driver's side dropped to the highway. The tire was still rolling away by the time I crossed three lanes of traffic and came to a stop on the shoulder.
The tire stopped about a half-mile down from me. The holes of the wheel that mount on the studs are pretty effed. They are cut and 'wallowed' from the moment right before it flew off.

My co-worker that stopped helping me jack up the front to get the spare on.

 

I can cut some length off of them to get them out, but that still won't fix the issue of getting the new studs into place.

you will need to remove the unit bearing, seperate it from the shaft and secure it someplace sturdy...like a big bench vise.

like i said before...just buy a new unit bearing (new studs are installed). seriously, its not worth the effort to replace the studs. will be a lot easier and save you soooo much cussing & time. and while the unit bearing probably survived this fine, you just don't know what kind of damage was done inside that unit bearing or how short its life may now be. just replace it.

 

If you remove the unit bearing, you might be able to get them out.

 

When I unbolt the bearing assembly, will that give me the room to get the studs out?

 

Just looked at a spare set in the garage. You might be able to get them out. I'd replace the whole unit bearing too.

 

Get a new hub assembly and repair the other one as a "trail" spare. In order to remove the wheel studs you will have to remove the entire outer hub assembly from the knuckle.

 

I like the trail spare idea. I started seeing that as I have enhanced my searching in the last couple of hours.

Are you saying that removing the hub assembly/unit bearing assembly will allow me the space to pull the old studs out and put the new ones in?

Even if I get the new assembly and keep the old as a spare, I will still need to replace the studs....since I don't trust the three that are left, and because there are only three. haha.

 

Got everything swapped out. It brakes awesome (first set of new brakes it's had since i've owned the Jeep).

Only problem is I am getting a 'scratching' noise from the driver's side. It almost sounds like the brake caliper is not releasing pressure from the rotor while NOT applying the brake. I'm not sure if the caliper was damaged and that is the issue, or if something is just not functioning right.

 

Probably your brake rotor dust shield (if the rotor was ground down to nothing I'm sure the dust shield took a beating as well). That was the first thing I removed on my Jeep after my first caliper went out. I was going to SCORP a lot (before it closed) and even after washing my Jeep several times I wasn't getting all the junk out from behind the rotor/dust shield. My 04 Grand Cherokee came stock from the factory without dust shields so I removed them off of my 05 Rubicon. I'm using ceramic brake pads so I don't see any brake dust build up either.

Just jack it up and spin the tire and see if you can get it to make the noise. If it only makes the noise with the brakes applied then either the bracket for the calipers got bent or the bolts that hold the caliper on got bent. If the caliper is sticking the rim is going to be hot to the touch and the pads would be smoking.

 

This is a scary story, but sounds fixed. I went out in the snow to check my lug nuts just to make sure no wheels are flying off my Jeep tomorrow!

+1 on the dust shield, if you sneeze on it, it will bend.

 

This happened to my Jeep before I bought it. The previous owner was driving and the wheel came off. You can see where the tire rubbed the fender flare. Also if you look closely you can see the rotor has a flat spot where it touched down. It sat for 1-2 years in his driveway in this condition before I bought it. The tire was lost on the highway, they looked and couldn't find it. So I have no spare...

I replaced the whole hub assembly (both sides), tie-rod, new callipers, rotors, pads, brake hoses, u-joints. Almost everything was rusted/seized so I think I know why the studs broke off. You might not need to replace all that, but while you have it apart, I'd consider it.

 

The tire was lost on the highway, they looked and couldn't find it. So I have no spare...

I had a dually before that was a conversion. I hit an aired up trailer spare laying just outside the fog line on the shoulder right before a railroad undercrossing. The hit broke the rear axle an I saw the pair of still bolted together tires make one bounce up in the air and never saw them again after that.

 

This should be a good lesson/reason as to why to use a torque wrench to check those tire lug nuts on install and periodically thereafter...

 

But, how can something as large as a pair of dually wheels fall through the fabric of space and disappear?

 

I got the rig off the bridge and looked for them in traffic and they was not there. I then figured they bounced off the overpass and down to where the train tracks were. A couple of buddies helped me search that whole area and there was nothing to be found.

The best I can come up with is the assembly got picked up while I was getting a tow truck to come out. I could never figure how no one hit them or they missed all the vehicles in all the traffic there that day.

 

Surely a wheel (especially a front one) will telegraph there's a problem long before it lets go?
Vibrations?, knocking?, funny noise?, clunking? wobbly? and over a period of time.
I can't believe that one minute it's all good and the next you're driving on 3 wheels.

 

You would think. In an instant, I felt a slight shake in the front. In the time the slight shake went to a severe shake, I had taken my foot off the gas pedal. As soon as the shake went to severe, the tire flew off. It really happened that fast.
From the second I felt the first shimmy in the front to the wheel flying off was only about 5 seconds.
All that means to me is that I was driving in the same straight lane long enough to keep the tire mounted up. As soon as I (probably) hit some inconsistancy in the road, it sent the tire flying.

 

After doing some more 'searching' on the forum, I am reading that my situation can be the result of one of two things.....collapsed brake hose or bad caliper.

I am planning on replacing both today. If I'm out of line and my research is wrong...please stop me now.

 

I picked up a new/reman caliper and installed that and bled the lines again. Put the tire on and while it was still in the air, turned the wheel and it was still scratching again.

I pulled the tire AGAIN and yanked the Autozone rotor. I returned that and figured I would try the O'Reily brand...thinking maybe the AZ rotor was not close enough to OEM spec as I know their products can be.
I still got the scratching with the O'Reily rotor. I pulled that one and just for kicks, put the passenger side rotor on.....no scratching. It's obviously worn down enough not to keep that contact with the pads.

What is my deal???? Could it be that brake hose (I did not replace that)? Did the caliper mount get bent in the incident putting too much pressure on the rotor?

I am almost considering searching Craigslist for a used d30 with my gear ratio and just start over with that. I don't have the down time to keep tearing this one apart looking for the problem.

 

I posted this over on your build thread... Yikes. I see you live in Katy...what neighborhood are you building in? We live in Grand Lakes - Grand Parkway & Fry road area.

Good luck with your wheel stud issue. Glad you are alright!

 

Oh man, I need to check over there.
We are building in Westheimer Lakes North off 1093 and 99. We looked in Grand Lakes among several other neighborhoods. Can't seem to loose in most of them.

Thanks! I'm glad to be ok also. I just hope I can get this completely worked out sooner than later.

 

Are you saying that the brake pads are making noise against the rotor? Is this a noise that you can hear while driving or just while you spin the wheel while in the air? It seems like when I have done brake jobs in the past I hear the bads against the fresh rotor making a little "friction" noise.

 

With the new pads and rotor, it makes a scratching noise as you turn the wheel...whether off the ground just turning it by hand (with or without the wheel on), or on the ground driving.
To me it seemed that if I tried to drive with it like that, that it would heat up the rotor too much and warp it, so I did not want to drive like that too long to see if it would fade away.

I don't get the sound from the passenger side, which makes me think something else may have been damaged on the driver's side making the pads make too much contact.

 

It took me like 5 minutes to replace my lugs. big hammer, impact gun, and some washers.

 

Could be the caliper mount. If you can spin the tire by hand then I dont think it's enough pressure to warp it. Seems like it would wear the pad uneven, but eventually stop scraping if it was the mount. They should be self adjusting. Nothing pulls your pad away from the rotor after you brake, when you remove pressure it scrapes material off every time. How far did you drive it? Did you grease the pads?

 

I am wondering if it is the caliper mount. At first, I didn't think it could be, but thinking about how much weight was on that caliper...I am starting to think it.
I can spin the tire by hand, but it just sounds terrible and it can't be right. A rotor is only $30, but it's still not worth messing it up.

I only drove it a few houses down from mine before turning around and pulling back in the garage.

I greased the backs of the pads and the caliper bolts.

 

Are you sure you got the right unit bearing and rotor from the parts store? They changed in 2000 or so. Measure and compare the parts on your passenger side and compare to the drivers side. It's only a fraction of an inch different. Both the rotor and the unit bearing changed.

See post #3

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/dana-30-front-axle-bearings-hub-assembly-734654/