Things are never easy as they should be on my truck
 

So here is my latest problem

I bought tires and rims off of ntwonline.com. i got a great deal and great service. shipped to my door. So I went to put them on. I started with the front driver side. I got the old tire off no problem, put the new one on, and everything worked out great. so I was excited cause it went so easily. Next I went to the front passenger side. Here is where my problems started. I got the old tire/rim off no problem, put the new one up there and went to put the new lug nuts on and guess what...the lugs are a different size! the owner before me must have replaced them with bigger ones. I always noticed that the lug nuts for that tire were different but never thought much of it. but I was lucky because the old lug nuts on this one were the same as the ones i got. so i pollished them up and put the old ones back on. not TOO big of a problem, just an in-convinience. so now I am pretty happy, half way done and I LOVE the way the tires and rims look. so time to move on to the back. I bust all the lug nuts loose, jack up the truck and go to take the lug nuts off the rest of the way. I now realize that the lugs on the back are different also (note that i was told it was a '96 rear axle when i bought it) so i had to go get a new thin wall socket so i would be able to put the old lugs back on until i can get new ones ordered. so then i went back home and I got the lug nuts all off but one. the one would loosen a little bit but them seem to get "jammed". so I just went to wrenching on it real hard then i heard a loud pop. first thing i thought was finally its loose. so went to spinning it and after a second i realize that it is coming any looser. so i look at the lug, and the lug is spinning with the nut! so then i thought damn broke the lug. but no the lug wouldnt come out. so i was confused as to what to do. so i put the rest of the lug nuts back on and tightened them and went to the other side, and sure enough the 3rd lug nut i tried to undo, did the same thing. the whole stud would just spin but wouldnt come out. so i tightened them all back up and drove to the shop. he said that the lugs were stripped and were just spinning around in there. He said he only has 2 options to fix it for me.
1: torch the lug and cut it off so we can get the rim and tires off (would possibly damage or ruin my rim)
2: take off the diff cover and pull out both axle shafts with the wheels on it still so he can get to the back of the lug and weld it again so he can take off the lug nut and then replace the lug with a new one.

the guy told me I was a strong son-of-a-gun if i did this with hand tools. lol i told him i did cause i dont even own any air tools.

so i drove the truck home and told him i would figure it out and call him back because, i go to school an hour and a half away from home. i only came home to put the tires on. so now this happened so i dont have a ride. so i had to leave the truck at home and drive my dads truck back up to school (thank god he has a motorcycle he can drive to work :lol: )

my dad is going to take my truck back up there and tell them to fix it by taking apart the axle. i have 2 reasons for this:
1: i am trying to sell those rims so i dont want them screwed up really bad
2: the axle could probably use being taken apart and new fluids put in it. ( i am just hoping that while he is in there he doesnt find something else wrong :( )

so through this whole experience i have found that i have THREE different lug sizes on the truck. and i can break lugs with my hands :eek:

oh and on the second tire on the back, there could possibly be more than one that breaks because once i broke the first one, i said screw it and drove it to the shop.

this has been quite an experience and had me quite frusterated and i might have a new dent in the truck because of it :(

if any one has any comments or ideas on if i should do something different, please let me know. I am open to any suggestions if you know any better way of getting my issue fixed. Thanks!

Huh, nope, never heard of that. Just know that there's really not that much torque to the nuts = 100' lbs.

Sounds like someone screwed things up before you became owner.

oh yea things were definetly screwed up by the previous owner. but little by little i am fixing everything. lol

Never had to replace a lug, but they have to take the axle apart to acomplish ? I guess that's probably the best way, -unless you can get enough outward pressure by prying from the backside and turning the nut at the same time.. Yea, from the sounds of it, that wouldn't work either.

The have to get those studs in their somehow? Maybe there's a resessed Torx inlet on the opposite side ? Idunno, haven't had mine apart. Taking the axle sounds drastic lol.

I guess I could look up replacement real quick - BRB.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...3-untitled.jpg


https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...2722-labor.jpg


Yea, but you have the rim on their, so I guess your screwed. WAIT! No your not, Auto Zone sells nut splitters pretty cheap.

But yea, I haven't done it and there's mention of a press, so...

yea see if i can get the rim off, it would be a piece of cake. and like the guy at the shop said would be a 30 min job max. but being that it wont come out, i am screwed.

BUT there is even worse news. my dad talked to the shop again today and he is going to take the truck tomorrow morning. but the guy at the shop said that there is even a possibility of having to get new shafts...depending on how the lug "stripped" out. if it just broke threads, its not a big deal...but if something broke on the axle side of it, i could need new axle shafts...so that would suck and shoot price of this way up.

so i called a local salvage yard and they said an axle for my truck (so that way I would be back to the '97 rear end) is about $400. so if the shop starts telling me its gonna be more than that, im just gonna go get the axle and put that under it.

dang that sucks
why did the P.O. put a 96 rear end in it? thats weird

btw what rims did you go with? i wanna see lol

and make your twin at school buy your old 38s!!!

well the story goes that he was doing do-nuts and blew up that axle. and then it beats me as to why they would put a 96 rear end in rather than a 97. they arent hard to find...one phone call and i found one today.

here is a pic of them.
https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...tires-rims.jpg

haha im selling them! he says he dont have the cash for it. lol

Before anybody replaces any parts on your rear axle, make sure they double check the bolt pattern. If it really is from a 96 it will have the wrong bolt pattern - 5x5.5 (96) vs 5x135 (97)

hahahaha wow dude yall are going to be perfect twins now, rims and everything...wth
ive been trying to talk him into going to 38's forever, ill try and talk him into buying yours lol


but seriously id get the axle code off the 96 rear or whatever it is and find out what axle it is (i.e. 9" 9.75 etc) and what gears it has in it
and make sure it has the same gears as your front diff, cus if your front and rear gears dont match...bad things happen
your truck should have a 9.75 from the factory IIRC

I was told that the bolt patterns were the same...by the shop im getting all this done at and people on here and i mentioned it to them when i was buying them and they said it wont be a problem. im hoping its not a problem.

haha my rims are nicer than his are though. lol and i have more lift :rocker:

the axle is the 8.8 with 3.55 gears in it. my truck came with the 8.8 axle because I have the 4.6 not the 5.4. I have thought about upgrading to the 9.75 but I may have to get my drive shaft shortened.

so here we go guys. an update for my story. lol

i took it to the shop yesterday when i got home around noon. shop called me around 5:30 and told me "we got a problem" so i drove down there to see whats up.

apparently when i told them to check the bolt pattern first, they had one lug out on each side so they check...and it appeared to fit so they went on with it. 5 1/2 hrs later everything is finished and the rims dont fit. the guy at the shop is a great guy and really did feel bad for how things went but like he said, its un-controllable circumstances. so he charged me 2 hrs labor (instead of 5 1/2) discounted all the materials (lugs, welding, ect). so i walked out with paying 260. not too bad but i was extremely disapointed because i fixed a bad axle that wasnt gonna help me. we asked him the "best" way to fix it and he said a new axle that is the same year. then we asked him the cheapest and he said trade the rims for the right ones (but then can never be rotated with out dismounting the tires). so i was pissed that i was gonna have to spend more money. but i came home, did some research and found the wheel adapters. changes the lug pattern for $80 and i can do it my self. a wonderful solution. i went this way for a couple reasons:
1. (obviously) matches my lug pattern for the whole truck
2. a hell of a lot cheaper than axle or new rims and i can always rotate them now.
3. actually will make the truck look better IMO because it will make the back tires stick out as much as the front tires (so everything will be even)

so now i am going to explain how the previous owners "fixed" this problem (may be scary to some of yall) the opened the 2 holes on each of the back rims to make them fit over the lugs. its really not noticable unless you really look and know what your looking for. they ALSO put washers behind the lugs to "space" the rims out to fit. this cause the wheel to "slip" ever so slightly everytime it moved and that caused the lugs to weaken which caused them to break when i tried to take them off. it also made the holes in my drums oblong. so eventually im gonna need new drums and brakes. but thats a problem for another day.

so i ordered my wheel adapters today so hopefully they will be here by next weekend. until then, i am still riding on my old tires and rims. (so gabriel if your on here, i am glad it worked out that i didnt sell my rims to you :lol: )

That is Scary. That would suck to see your rear wheels passing you up while driving lol.

Sounds like you have a good plan anyway.

haha yea that would have been scary. lol but the guy at the shop said there is nothing wrong with the rims now...as long as they are put on the proper year it wont make a difference being that they can be tightend down in the right spot. he said the dangerous part was actually breaking all the studs because of the way they would have been tightened down.

yupp so i am excited about my plan...a lot cheaper and it means that fixing my axle wasnt a waste of money :banana:

id just upgrade to a 9.75 if i were you

i dont think an 8.8 will last too long on 38s