Double Nutting advice

walkerlakeprinter

walkerlakeprinter

Senior Member
I am trying to remove the water pump studs to replace with the clever new bolts. The first one I tried double nutting and it came off without a fuss. The next two I tried just turned both nuts and did not budge the stud. Is there a secret to double nutting so that when backing off the inner nut that both nuts don't turn? I bought a stud puller, but when it failed to move the first stud and scored up the threads that I might have had to use if my removal job failed, I decided to try the double nutting. I followed the advise about heating the studs, tapping with a hammer and then using PB Blaster overnight.
 
Well, you did what you needed to do. Heat, tapping, repeat. When double nutting, you really need to crank down on the two nuts and get them just as tight as you can. Sometimes thats not enough. Stuff happens.
 
When using heat on stubborn studs I aim to get as much heat into the stud as possible without heating the block/area around the stud. Then take a very wet cloth and cool the stud as quickly as possible. Doing this a few time has worked well for me. Just be careful not to get a steam burn.
 
if it has to come out and everything else fails, and you plan on replacing the stud, double nut it and ARC weld the stud to the top nut. This after Kroil, PB Blaster, wax, heat etc, AND A LOT OF PATIENCE. Good luck, been there and done that
 
Katy,
Try putting pressure in both direction, alternate a little tighter, a little back until you have broken the lock then go back and forth until loose.
Regards
Chris
 
THANKS ALL!!! I tried some of all the above suggestions. My last try with heating, then cooling rapidly with a wet cloth, followed by running a die down on the stud to extend the threads closer to the block so that I had room to put a lock washer between the two nuts did the trick. Thanks again, to all of you!
 
To answer your original question, yes, there is a secret to double-nutting, and that is to tighten the nuts against each other so that there is tension between them. That is done by putting a wrench on each nut and turning the lower nut up against the upper (or front) nut. Do not just tighten one and then tighten the other down against it. The object is put tension in the stud between the nuts.
 
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Removing stubborn studs is always an issue. Double nutting comments are good and heating is usually needed on stubborn studs but so is patience! Sometimes lots of patience and heat and hammer tapping will do the job to break loose these stubborn devils but then again sometimes something bad happens and then the job really gets into "easyout territory! Hope that does not happen!
 
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