| Removing
a hubcap
If you have an older car that still has hubcaps (instead of
the wheel covers o~ more recent models), the first task in
changing a tire - after you pull to the !, side of the road
and finish banging the heel of your hand against the steering
wheel in frustration - is to remove the hubcap of the injured
tire. The follo;W ing steps tell you how:
1. Use a screwdriver or the flat
end of a lug wrench (see Figure 2-20 in Chapter 2) to pry
off the hubcap. Just insert the point of the tool
where the edge of the cap meets the wheel, and apply a little
leverage (see Figure 1-3). The cap should pop i off. You may
have to do this in a couple of places; it's like prying the
lid' off a can of paint.
2. Lay the cap on its back so that
you can put the lug nuts into it to keep them from rolling
away and heading for the nearest sewer.
After you remove the hubcap, the next task is to loosen the
lug nuts.
Loosening the lug nuts
Lug
nuts are those big nuts that hold the wheel in place. Most
garages retighten them with a power tool, and unless you've
done the job yourself by hand, they're going to be pretty
hard to loosen. (Take my advice in Chapter 2 and buy a cross-shah
lug wrench. Figure 2-20 shows what one looks like.)
Before you begin, you have to ascertain whether the lug nuts
on the wheel you're working on are right-hand threaded or
left-hand threaded. This isn't a "left-handed hammer"
joke; the threads determine which way you turn the wrench.
The lug nuts on the right side of a vehicle are always right-hand
threaded, but the nuts on the left side may be left-hand threaded.
Look at the lug nuts on your car; in the center of the lugs
you should see an R, an L, or no letter at all:
? A lug with an R or with no letter is right-threaded. Turn
it counterclock¬wise to loosen it.
? A lugs with an L is left-threaded. Turn it clockwise to
loosen it.
For the purposes of sanity, I'll assume that your car has
right-threaded nuts. If you have a couple of lefties, just
turn the wrench in the opposite direction as you follow these
steps to loosen the lug nuts:
1. Find the end of the wrench that
fits the lug nuts on your car, and fit it onto the first nut.
Always work on lug nuts in rotation. That way, you won't forget
to tighten any later.
2. Apply all your weight to the
bar on the left.
This starts turning the nut counterclockwise, which loosens
it.
If
the nut has been put on with a power tool and you can't get
it start a piece of hollow pipe, fitted over that left-hand
arm of the cross-shal wrench, magically adds enough leverage
to start the nut easily (see ; Figure 1-4). After you replace
the nut yourself, this aid is no longer n essary. But remember,
the longer the arms on your lug wrench, the t~ leverage you
have. ;
Don't
remove the lug nuts completely; just get them loose enough
so that I can remove them by hand after raising the car (a
feat explained in an earli~ section of this chapter, "The
Safe Way to Use a Jack").
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