Treading Lightly

 I thought I would use the same header that I used when I went online to the Flx community looking for advise. I am removing the rear tires so that I can eventually remove the rear axle. Seems simple right?
Come on....you know better than that!

 On the passenger side I managed to get all the lug nuts off and then I stalled... the inner rim seemed to be frozen (rusted) to the hub. I tried my usual methods of pry bar, swearing, sledge hammer, swearing, all my superhuman strength, swearing.....I think you get the picture. Anyway the post online resulted in a few suggestions, and the simplest one worked! Seems perfectly logical now but at the time I was plum out of ideas....except for the swearing...still had lots of that.
A small bottle jack wedged between the frame and the rim edge...POP!...off she came. The drivers side(above) has presented it's own challenges. You may remember some controversy with the drivers side wheels from a year ago....http://49clipper.blogspot.com/2009/12/rookie-mistake.html

A learning experience but this is not the same mistake. This issue was one of strength. On the rear wheels the inner rim is held onto the hub with special lug nuts that are threaded on the outside. This allows the outer rim to be secured onto the hub with it's own lug nut.Capishe?
Problem is you can't use an impact wrench with a regular socket....the inner lug nut has a square head. So the only lug wrench I have is an original from 1949(ish) .

Bendy bar

Seems simple enough, except the bar with the lug wrench just doesn't cut the mustard. It held in there to remove the passenger side inner rim, and 4 of 10 inner lugs on the drivers side. Now it has deformed enough that it won't hold...she just bends right away.

Sometimes you just let a problem sit and percolate. Like my Amma's coffee the longer you let it sit the more concentrated the problem becomes until the solution just pops out at you. Except her coffee got so strong it would just pop you...yet I digress...
So I let the rim sit and I moved on...or under.. and started to remove the linkages holding the axle to the springs.

I started this post on Sunday (Jeff's birthday 10-10-10) but I am finishing the publishing of it Monday morning and I think I may have a solution to my lug nuts! I'll keep you posted....(sorry, couldn't help myself)