Car wheel removal
I have a small car which means that the spare wheel is hidden away in a hole under the floor of the boot. Down at the botton of this hole is a nut and threaded into this nut is a handle that screws down and holds the tyre in place, just incase it tries to escape when you are driving over a speed bump.
For some reason when it rains the water manages to make it’s way into the hole contain holding the spare wheel.
The other day we discovered a slow puncture so I set about swapping out the spare so I could drive around to the tyre shop. As always my first challenge was removing the wheel trim. I’d taken a screw driver for that job so managed it with relative ease i.e. no blood.
When I tried to remove the spare from the boot, the handle would not budge. Because of the location it was difficult to get anything into the hole to help unscrew it. In the end I resorted to gripping it with a pair of pliers and managed to loosen it up. Not surprisingly the nut in the bottom of this hole had rusted to the handle. I cleaned up the thread on the handle with a die and soaked it in WD40.
I then made a simple tool to help unscrew the handle next time we need to remove it.
Finally I plan to get some old tea towels so that any water in the hole is soaked up and does not slosh all over the nut or if appropriate water proof it with some Sugru.
Posted in: Uncategorised
Tags: car, changing tyres, Ford Fiesta, wheel
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
