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Seized spoke nipple technique
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Assuming youve already tried some sort of penetrant and that wasnt succesful, maybe try a little heat ? personally if its one or two spokes and they fought me after using those two methods i would cut them off and fire up some new ones .
Yes, I applied some wd40 and a little bit of heat on Saturday.
Will see how I go tonight and report back.
If you've got a special secret (sauce or method to get these loose), let me know, or else some sparks are going to fly, ha ha.
Wipe excess penetrant off the spoke. Get a medium sized vice grip and grab the spoke close to the nipple, placing the spoke right in the V-serrated teeth of the jaws, like mini V-blocks. You want the vice grip just tight enough to keep the spoke from spinning. Then use a good fitting spoke wrench to spin the nipple. If you can't get it loose doing this, it wasn't meant to be! 😆 It helps if the other spokes on the wheel are already loose to reduce tension.
Let em fly
Lol
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Install pink spoke wraps, sell bike….
just under 300°F followed almost immediately by a WD-40 quench from both ends of the nipple has always worked for me to disassemble old wheels.
If the nipples have tool access on the inside, you can use a spoke wrench in addition to a hex key or a screwdriver to avoid wrench-slippage.
If you're tossing the spokes anyway, bolt cutters do a quick job for wheel disassembly.
Buy a new set of spokes, verify they’re the correct length, use a bolt cutter for a 2 minute disassembly, rebuild your wheel with shiny new spokes and nipples.
It’s probably more involved than you wanted, but it’s not a lot of money or time, and it’s the right way to take care of a pretty important part of your scooter. Ive collapsed a front wheel before, I’ll tell you that it’s not a fun surprise when you see the ground approaching your head and have no clue what’s going on..
Whizzer to cut them all and use Buchanan spoke for larger OD spokes and nipples too.
Or this👆
I use flat jaw vise grips. Take a chain saw file to one of each side of jaw to file off sharp edge to not damage spokes. I also use buchanan spoke dope on all spokes and nipples (stainless & aluminum)
They make slip on square spoke wrenches so it puts pressure on all 4 sides.
Dang , I've never herd of that tool? How does that tool hold the spoke from spinning like the vise grip method ?
If the spoke is spinning in the hub I have a tiny needle nose vice grip that can hold it from spinning.
This is the spoke wrench for my Husqvarna
With a couple of days of soaking penetrating fluid (WD40) and the lock pliers, I was able to get all the spokes loose without rounding off a single nipple.
Surprisingly, the threads of the spokes were dry so maybe my penetrating fluid didn't help much?
I want to give @cwtoyota trick a try, heat and then quench with wd40 next time to see if that helps loosen them up some more.
Yes, I second this, even combined with vice grips and an Allen socket on the inside gives good control and won’t round the nipple off. After you heat and immediately spray WD or some PB, the lube will be sucked right in. Usually works like a charm.
Kroil is the gold standard of penetrating oil. WD is a water displacement oil.
That's mostly marketing... Most of the common products like WD-40 can match, or beat Kroil for that purpose and heat beats them all.
For penetrating oil and short term rust prevention, a spray bottle and a gallon of WD-40 are all you need.
I keep Blaster or WD-40 branded silicone spray lubricant on the shelf for throttle cables, clutch cables, and all kinds of other things in the shop.
This isn't certified testing by an independent lab, but it's good enough for the rest of us:
WD 40 is weak sauce as a penetrant. Kroil for the win. PB Blaster is a close sect. Time is your friend. After a couple hour soak try the heat and vice grip and spoke wrench method.
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