Friendly Advice for new HD owners

PbFlinger · April 6, 2005

Hello all,

Hope I can save somebody some aggravation. My '01 2500HD has the factory aluminum rims. I got the truck with about 35k miles on it. One of the things I like to do when I get a new, (or new to me) vehicle is to get the jack out & see if I can change a tire with what the factory gave me, or at least what the PO left me with. I prefer to get surprised in my driveway rather than on the roadside. I figured I'd rotate 'em while I was at it since I didn't know how long it had been since it was done last.

Glad I did in this case, the rear wheels were STUCK, and I mean STUCK on the hubs. We get pretty frequent road salt here in the winter, and some corrosion had grown between the ID of the hub holes in the rims & the OD of the hubs. It's a pretty close fit, on my truck at least. I broke an 8 foot 2x4 trying to pry them off, with a wood block on the leaf spring for a fulcrum. (Yes, I took the lug nuts off, HA!). Would have been pretty tough on the road side. I suppose I would have had to loosen the lugs & drive on the flat a little to bust it loose. There's no way I could have got it otherwise; I had to drop the truck & get it on jackstands & a floor jack to do it at home, I would certainly have yanked it off of the factory jack.

I could not believe how minor the corrosion looked when I got them off, for being stuck as tight as they were. I cleaned it up on both surfaces, polished all 4 rim ID's up with some Simichrome, painted the hub with Rustoleum, let it dry a couple of days, and then put a thin smear of wheel bearing grease on the contact area (hub OD) before I put them back on. Have not had any trouble since, and the few times I've had the wheels off I put a new smear of grease on them to be sure.

You guys who have the same rim/axle combo might want to check for this if you haven't had the rears off yet, if your truck has any age on it at all. Mine was less than 2 years old when I found this out. New truck owners might consider the grease thing or something similar to prevent it from happening in the first place. I know I would have invented a whole bunch of new words if I would have had to deal with this in the dark in the snow on the side of I70 on the way to work.

Happy trucking,

Flinger

willieboy · April 6, 2005

It must be something with these newer factory aluminum rims. I think the tolerances are so close these days, that anything will cause them to bind. My wife has a Sebring, and both times I have had to change a flat on that car, the freaking rim seemed like it was fused to the hub. With those new words you were talking about, and some well placed agression, I have been able to free them. I always assume this is because of the heat generated by the disk brakes. I never thought about using some grease to help avoid the issue. Great Idea!! Thanks.

Now to go check my new to me Burb...

71GMC_3/4T · April 6, 2005

Thanks for the heads up!

The next time I'm rotating, I'll clean 'em and grease 'em.

Was it very cold while you were doing this? The reason I ask is because aluminum will shrink on the hub when it's cold. A friend of mine had a stuck hub on a cold winter day and he threw a bucket of hot water on the rim and it came right off. Now, on a cold dark night on I-70, you might not be able to find a bucket of hot water. At that point you'll probably be wishing you drank that last cup of coffee before you headed home, LOL.

snoman · April 6, 2005

I spray 90 weight gear oil on back of wheels before I mount them steel of aluminum. Crude but effective.

cokedrvrbjw · April 6, 2005

90 weight gear oil...Crude but effective.

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PbFlinger · April 7, 2005

71GMC_3/4T,

Best I can remember the temps were pretty moderate. It was pretty obvious the corrosion was the culprit in this case. Good tip on the hot water trick, though.

snoman,

Good tip as this would slow down the rust & corrosion on the whole mating surface. Who cares if it's crude, if it works!

willieboy,

No problem! I have got plenty of good tips off of the 'net, happy to pass one along.

Here's another story along these lines. A few years ago I was doing a front brake job on my Caprice. I already had the pads & bearings on hand. When I got it apart, the rotors were a little gnarly looking, so I decided to replace them. The only parts store open was the big orange chain. I have had some pretty bad luck with their parts in the past, so I normally don't go there for anything. But, I thought "what could go wrng with a brake rotor? No moving parts."

Wrong. First thing I noticed was that one of the preinstalled bearing races had a big pit in it. No big deal, I had new bearings and had planned on using them anyway. When I knocked the old ones out, the BRASS punch I was using put big dents in the races. Say, that's some pretty hard bearing material! All they said on the back was CHINA, no part # or anything. No big deal, installed the new bearings, reassembled the whole mess. Whoopee, time to spare, about an hour before I had to go to work & all I had to do was put the (stock) wheels back on & drop it off of the jackstands.

well, neither wheel would go on. Did some measuring, the part of the hub that pokes through the hole in the wheel was too big to go through the hole. Called the orange box to double check part numbers, they were the right ones. Had them measure a couple of the same part # they had in stock, they were all different by nearly 1/4", and all bigger than the originals. I wound up having my wife spin the rotors while I ground them down with an angle grinder. I thought about hogging out the hole in the wheels, but I would have had to do all 4 or only these 2 would mount on the front. Made it to work with seconds to spare, man was I honked off.

Needless to say I won't buy anything from them again. The castings had "GM Canada" cast into them. I'm guessing they were Q.C. rejects, hence the low price. Cheapo parts are rarely a good deal in my book.

sonjaab · April 8, 2005

Guys..I have read elsewhere there is a reaction from the cast

iron hubs and the alum. wheel that causes rust to form thus

"welding" the rims to the hubs...................

Seen it happen on a Explorer with the factory alloys.

The grease trick works fine to prevent this in the frozen, snow

and salt north !

snoman · April 8, 2005

Guys..I have read elsewhere there is a reaction from the cast
iron hubs and the alum. wheel that causes rust to form thus

"welding" the rims to the hubs...................

Seen it happen on a Explorer with the factory alloys.

The grease trick works fine to prevent this in the frozen, snow

and salt north !

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes aluminum and steel or cast iron together in a salt environment do not get along well together at all. I use steel wheel on my winter trucks too.

Bart2500HD · April 8, 2005

I rotated my tires last night and I found my rear wheels to be stuck on the hubs too. I eventually used a piece of 2x4 between the springs and wheel to pry the wheel off. I put a thin coat of anti-seize on the hubs before reinstalling wheels.