On Sat, 21 Nov 2015 13:24:47 -0600, wrote:

On Fri, 20 Nov 2015 23:06:26 -0700, Tony Hwang wrote:

Around five years ago when I had to change a tire, it took me 90
minutes. By the time I was done, I thought I would have to call 911. My
back was hurting so bad I had to lay down for 5 days to get over it.
It's gotten worse since then. It was on a dirt road, and I had to use
two jacks and a big rock to get it high enough to change the tire. The
car has new tires all around, but it's getting old and I don't want to

I always have a breaker bar with the proper socket for my lug nuts, in
the car. I also carry some wood blocks in the car. And, a 30" piece of
inch and a half diameter steel pipe. If a lug nut wont come off, the
steel pipe on the breaker bar will usually get it off. If a jack dont go
high enough, a wooden block will help (of course you should make sure
the jack goes high enough, BEFORE you need it). And wooden blocks are
also helpful for blocking the car on a hill, when you jack it up.

Those so called "Lug Wrenches" are too flimsy for stuck lug nuts. They
will bend and flex, which means that NOT all your applied force is going
to use on the nut.

I learned all these things the HARD WAY!!!

(And dont forget to check the air in your spare tire at least twice a
year).

I've told this story before, but unless you changed your email, you
weren't here.

We came back from our mother's and I dropped my brother off at Newark
Airport. Got back from the terminal and I had a flat .

It was spring but I'd had surgery in December, couldn't drive, and the
car was parked for two months in the snow, in Queens, and I'd not put
one of the hubcaps on. On that wheel, the left rear, I couldnt' get
the lug nuts off. I stood on the lug wrench, and got t hem off, but
I broke 3 or 4 studs in the process.

It was Sunday. I could ave taken public transportation to NYC and then
to Brooklyn, somehow found someone to tow in and fix my car in NJ,
taken public transportation back on Monday. At least 5 hours wasted.

I decided to try driving home. About 15 miles. Going straight ahead
and turning left worked okay. But when I turned right, the wheel went
clomp, clomp, clomp. I tried to avoid right turns, or at least turn
very gradually.

I'd either broken 4 studs, or I broke 3 and one more broke while I was
driving. I got to the Holland Tunnel and hesitated. They really
hate when you break down in the tunnel and they charge a lot to pull
you out. They have a tow truck right there, that earns no money
except when they tow people out, so that's another reason for them to
charge.

I made it through the tunnel okay, and was going east on Walker, but
just as I got to Broadway, the last lug stud broke, the wheel fell
off, and the car's brake drum hit the ground, with the car not far
behind.

I was in the left lane, probably legal then, but come Monday rush
hour, 12 hours away, I'd be illegal.

So I jacked up the car, put the wheel on with no bolts, and started to
drive. I got 2 inches. Did it again and got 4 feet. Did it again and
went 140 feet, including turning left, going the wrong way up
Broadway** and turning left over a curb and into a parking lot. ***

**Broadway south of Canal is really quiet on Sunday evenings, or it
was when no one lived downtown.

***I'd scouted the area already and found this small parking lot, 120
feet north of the street I was on.

Took the subway home, came back the next morning with a hammer, a
drift, and 5 new lug studs and nuts. It took under an hour to fix the
car. I had to pay for 1.5 parking places for the whole day, because I
parked at right angles to the parking places.