James_B
Well-known member
Here's my dilemma.
I have a 2003 Land Rover Discovery, and Land Rovers with alloy wheels are notorious for the wheels growing onto the centre locating boss on the hubs. Even after treating the hubs with an anti sieze compound, I've been known to spend an inordinate amount of time with a club hammer and a wooden drift progressively driving the wheel off the hub ... and this was at home where I had all the tools. I'd hate to have to remove a wheel on the side of the road when dealing with a flat tire. People on Land Rover forums talk about loosening the wheel nuts a few turns and driving around for a few days until it frees itself, but this isn't really a practical option when you're incapacitated on the side of the road.
I discovered that a 6 inch 3 jaw gear puller will just clamp onto the centre section of the alloy wheels and with the plastic wheel centre cap removed, you can push against the end of the axle and get the wheel off. This makes the task relatively simple, but it's a poor fit on a 10 spoke wheel that has pairs of spokes close together and is effectively a 5 spoke wheel, often resulting in some damage to the alloy wheels.
I was thinking that either a 5 jaw puller, or modifying the centre spider on my 3 jaw to bring 2 legs closer together and change the angles between the jaws from 120/120/120 to 144/144/72, would do the trick.
Before I attack my spare 3 jaw puller, I thought I'd see if anybody knew of a source of 5 jaw 6 inch pullers.
I have a 2003 Land Rover Discovery, and Land Rovers with alloy wheels are notorious for the wheels growing onto the centre locating boss on the hubs. Even after treating the hubs with an anti sieze compound, I've been known to spend an inordinate amount of time with a club hammer and a wooden drift progressively driving the wheel off the hub ... and this was at home where I had all the tools. I'd hate to have to remove a wheel on the side of the road when dealing with a flat tire. People on Land Rover forums talk about loosening the wheel nuts a few turns and driving around for a few days until it frees itself, but this isn't really a practical option when you're incapacitated on the side of the road.
I discovered that a 6 inch 3 jaw gear puller will just clamp onto the centre section of the alloy wheels and with the plastic wheel centre cap removed, you can push against the end of the axle and get the wheel off. This makes the task relatively simple, but it's a poor fit on a 10 spoke wheel that has pairs of spokes close together and is effectively a 5 spoke wheel, often resulting in some damage to the alloy wheels.
I was thinking that either a 5 jaw puller, or modifying the centre spider on my 3 jaw to bring 2 legs closer together and change the angles between the jaws from 120/120/120 to 144/144/72, would do the trick.
Before I attack my spare 3 jaw puller, I thought I'd see if anybody knew of a source of 5 jaw 6 inch pullers.
