Bolt Trouble ft. WD-40 Fix - Van Wheel Hub Repair (Video)

In this video, a damaged wheel hub with stripped bolts was repaired by using WD-40 to loosen the seized fasteners. After carefully extracting the stripped bolts, the old hub assembly was removed and replaced to get our van back on the road.

All in all, the job was a success. We learned a lot and had to summon persistence and patience to think through every step and overcome our frustration. What a relief when those bolts cracked loose! Thank you WD-40 for coming to the rescue and solving our stripped-bolt crisis!

Check out the attached video or watch it on YouTube using the link below:
https://youtube.com/shorts/V4SvCGaIpo0

First things first, we parked our van on a flat surface, engaged the parking brake, and loosened the lug nuts and axel spindle nut with a breaker bar.

We then used a 4-tonne jack to lift the van in order to securely place it on jack stands. We inspected all the contact points to ensure safety while working underneath the van.

With the van raised, we tested the driver side wheel, shaking it at vertically, hands at 12 and 6, and horizontally, hands at 3 and 9. It was very wobbly and wasn’t on there securely due to the faulty wheel hub.

Next, we removed the wheel completely by taking off the loosened lug nuts and setting them aside.

With the wheel off, we took off the brake caliper by removing the caliper bolts with a socket wrench. The caliper is heavy, so we hung it securely using a bungee cord, making sure to not let it dangle by the ABS brake hose. Then we were able to slide the rotor off the hub.

We removed the axle spindle nut from the centre of the hub using the breaker bar. This wasn’t too difficult, since it was already loosened when the wheel was on the ground.

At this point, we sprayed down the bolts that hold the hub to the steering knuckle with WD-40 and hammered them with a chisel and hammer to loosen up the rust. We waited twenty minutes and tried to remove them with a socket wrench, which completely stripped two of them. This was disappointing but not surprising since the bolts are as old as the van. After 23 years, they were rusted in there pretty good, and the metal on the bolt heads had softened.

We ran to the store for more supplies—a bolt extractor kit, more WD-40, and a torch to heat the bolt up. Returning to the van, we sprayed them down with more WD-40, hammered on the extractor socket and the stripped bolts cracked loose! No heat required!

We disconnected the ABS sensor, removed the old hub assembly—luckily, it came out easily—and installed the new wheel hub by aligning it with the bolt holes and sliding it into place on the steering knuckle. Since our bolts were stripped, we used new bolts and tightened each one with a torque wrench to 66 ft-lbs (89 Nm). We reconnected the ABS sensor on the new hub, making sure the connection was clean and properly seated.

With the new hub in place, we put the axle spindle nut back on and tightened it with a torque wrench to manufacturer specifications, 147 ft-lbs (200 Nm).

We put the brake rotor back on. Before reattaching the caliper over the rotor, we put brake grease on the caliper pins and tighten the caliper bolts securely.

Next, we reinstalled the wheel, tightening the lug nuts in a star pattern.

We lowered the van down using the jack, then fully tightened the lug nuts with our torque wrench to 100 ft-lbs.

We tested the wheel to make sure it moved freely and didn’t wobble or make any unusual sounds. Then we started the van up and took it for a short test drive, listening for any odd sounds and making sure the brakes and steering felt normal. The van rolled along smoothly, with no noise to report.