Castle Nut Won't Budge - Suggestions? (Update - The Nut Finally Budged)

[Eric. 9]

Yes, to a point. In my experience it isn't so much that you expand the nut around the bolt, but that you get them to move against each other breaking whatever bond they might have.  The other is the difference in specific heat of metals. If I remember correctly aluminum will expand about 50% more then steel for each degree absorbed, but it takes twice as much energy to get aluminum to gain a degree as it takes for steel, which means that all things being equal the steel part will expand faster, specially if the heat is applied to the steel part. But this stuff is dragged from deep in the back of my hand and I may have my numbers wrong.

 

Of course applying heat just to the nut is best.

Oh brother.

 

1. Aluminum absorbs heat (and releases heat)much quicker than steel, assuming that the same level of heat is applied to both at the same time.

2. Aluminum expands much more and much quicker than steel.

3. By heating the steel castle nut and aluminum receiver ext at the same time, with the same flame, you are making a *tighter* fit due to the faster and larger expansion rate of the aluminum.

4. To get the adhesive to fail, you want to create a larger gap by expanding the nut and not expanding the receiver ext.  Expanding the receiver ext more than the steel nut won't achieve that. 

[MidwestPX 172]

FYI, I have previously used my freezer to break parts loose. It works better than heat sometimes.

 

Sent from an undisclosed location via Tapatalk.

I've also used it to fit parts together by freezing the part that goes into the bore.

[Ace08066 2]

If I had to guess, it's probably more like WD-40 removed the rust protectant coating from the area of the metal, rather than the actual WD 40 causing rust.

Eh, I'll give ya that.  Quite a possibility... I've never actually tested my theory in a controlled environment.    Never seen a part sprayed with PB-Blaster spontaneously start rusting, tho.  Just my 2 cents, I prefer PB to WD.

[Golf battery 1,223]

Glad to hear you busted a nut on this. Hope she appreciates it.