How “I” removed and installed wheel studs on my bus.
“REALLY LONG POST, MANY BORING VIDEOS, DO NOT GET INVOLVED IF THIS INFORMATION IS NOT NEEDED BY YOU”
I see on Michael Boutin web site he is installing wheel studs on his bus to use on his drive wheels using 1 steel wheel and 1 aluminum wheel. I plan to do the same thing and Michael this is what I did without going back and sorting out all my videos I will produce them all here. I know some of you are probably getting real tired of all my posts lately but something is telling me to get all the information I have on Eagles out there and let everyone know they can do a lot of their own repairs etc. if they try. “NOW I WANT TO TELL YOU “AGAIN” THAT ANYTHING I POST DOES NOT MEAN THIS IS THE BEST WAY, ONLY WAY OR THE CORRECT WAY TO DO ANYTHING ON YOUR BUS, THAT HAS TO BE YOUR DECISION JUST LIKE IT WAS ON MINE’ and to not hold anyone else responsible for my conversion procedures. My information is to be used and considered only a GUIDE to work from. With that said now I will continue with this subject.
I have many videos to post now on the removal and installation of new studs in MY wheel assemblies. My reason for this information is because I am going from 11R X 22.5 steel wheels to 11R X 24.5 aluminum wheels. The first thing I did on the front, bogie and drive wheels was assemble the wheels on each wheel assembly to see if I needed new or longer studs. As luck would find it I needed longer studs to begin with and the original studs I had on my bus had stretched threads from someone assembling tires on the bus using a 1” pneumatic gun that I am sure would stretch your stud threads almost backwards if done often or at any time. NEVER let anyone assemble your studs with a 1” gun, taking them off is ok but not reassembly. Your wheels have to be torqued or you will be in the same condition one day as I am now. So I am glad I have the aluminum wheels to assemble as It gave me a better time to inspect my wheel studs which I intended to do but am just now getting around to doing it.
After checking each wheel reassembled to the proper hubs I found that the difference between steel wheel studs and Aluminum wheel studs is ½” more of length is needed. Now that means the front and bogie wheels will have the same studs in length, (½” longer). The drive wheel, only the (Inner nuts that are threaded inside and outside has to be ½” longer but not the smaller studs that support the wheels permanently mounted in wheel hub.. So these videos will show you how I first started to remove the bogie wheel studs. I struggled as you will see at times but was able to remove all the studs even with a 4 lb. hammer. Now don’t use that, get at least 8 lb. hammer or larger at HF, $25 so you have something with some balls to knock out the studs while mounted on the bus. You will see I used a lot of lubricant the day before and by doing this to remove the studs, the lubricant did penetrate but the power of a 8 or 10 lb. hammer will do the job without too much trouble. Take your time, be sure you rotate the wheel where you are comfortable to hit with a heavy hammer, wear safety glasses, (Sparks, metal fragments) fly off the studs when hit!!! Wear non-slip gloves and have the handle just long enough to not be uncomfortable when striking a stud. Cut the hammer handle if needed to fit your stance in hitting the studs. TAKE YOUR TIME.
Upon reinstalling the new studs be sure you know that the studs are left handed thread for the left side of the bus and right hand threads for the right side of the bus. They will be stamped (R or L) on the end of the studs. Also , the mating nuts are also stamped (R or L). Do not assemble them on the wrong side of the bus. The procedure I used at assembly of the new studs was different in a couple of videos. At first I used the power of my ¾” gun to assemble them but my air compressor was too small in size and volume to assemble in an orderly way. It took hours to do the first wheel until I went and bought a new HF compressor, 27” high, oilless 200 psi compressor. My older one, 20 years old now just seized up on installing my studs. My older one would cut on at 80 psi when being used and cut off at 120 psi. That is not enough air power for an air angle grinder let alone a 3//4” gun. What I also did and works just great is I took the motor and crap off the top of my old 27” air compressor, I put new fittings on it to connect up my airline to it after being connected to my new compressor. This gave me so much more volume of air and work just great. You can put a gage on your 2nd, old tank to set the outgoing pressure for a paint sprayer and you can just paint all day as your new 200 psi compressor will keep throttling on and off at 160psi on to 200 psi off all day long. You will like this also as you can wheel your 2nd tank all around your shop as you are connected to your regular air compressor line by a hose also. Do not throw your old compressor tanks away. When both tanks are filled originally at the start of a day you will have a lot of volume all day long. Only Suggesting here.
But now you can easily pull in your new studs nice and straight when they are lubricated such as ai did and you do as I did so you do not put too much pressure on the threads as you assemble them. If you use the old method of using a hammer to slam them back in the wheel hub, well I guarantee, Guarantee you will not assemble the nice new expensive studs in straight. Also consider as I did before reassembling your new studs, clean your stud holes, wire brush them like I did to clean all rust and crud out of holes. Also clean the back of the wheel hub where the studs will rest when seated. DO NOT think you can pull the studs when you torque the nuts if you are up ⅛” from the bottom of your stud being seated on assembly with a torque wrench. DO NOT DO THIS. Make sure each and every stud is bottomed out using a light underneath it to look down on the stud to make sure you see no light under the head of the stud.
Now when I plan to install my drive wheel wheels on, I will be buying a plastic shim or spacer that is the diameter of your stud pattern on your wheel studs. I will place this between the steel rim and aluminum wheel rim to prevent different materials mating together that can rust and do all horrible stuff. This is your decision, the plastic spacers cost $9.95 at my supplier’s shop, I have not researched online but will see If I get them cheaper. I will use them on all my wheel assemblies to protect the aluminum wheels from breaking down over time.
Now this is all I could think of at this moment for Michael to have or anyone else thinking of replacing their studs for one reason or other. Please feel free to add any other suggestions for others to have on this thread that I have not done or missed for any reason but if it makes it easier to do please list this information. By the time I get all this done, with your suggestions also we will have enough information for a newbie to consider and have at his fingertips as a reminder and GUIDE to help him or her make good conversion decisions. Now onto the videos. Sorry I did not have time to edit them etc. but you will see exactly what I learned and did.