The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Square Nuts

hey does eastwood or some other company make a socket for removing square nuts off bolt an 8 sided one i think would just round them, i am removing some fairly rusted ones and rather not have to try to squeeze behind the dash if they round off with a grinder

any help would be really helpful

I do not think that any help would really be helpful. I'd wait to hear from someone who has first hand experience. However, maybe one of these would do the job?

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=17727&itemType=PRODUCT

http://www.stanleyproto.com/default...teName=PROTO&strDefaultCatalog=PROTO

Square nuts can usually be removed with the correct 12-point socket for that size. That is one of the reasons some of the older sets of sockets had lots of 12-points with them.

but like i said they are some really rusty bolts i think they would tend to just round off the corners

I would guess they will break that is what most of them do after 50-60 years.

You can buy a set of specialty sockets for square nuts from $nap-on, or another tool supplier. Check at your FLAPS, they might have them. I don't know that Sears has them these days. I don't have any, and generally use the following procedure. Penetrating oil, open end wrench, then grinder,sawzall, or gas-axe. Ahh the escalation of violence. Generally though, Brad is right, they just brake. I work on old wooden boats, and up into the sixties and even later, many of the fasteners are square nuts. Made up at the yards, or bought buy the keg. I'll tell you one thing, if you can find an old keg of the hot dipped galvanized fasteners, they will last virtually forever on your truck, and are much easier to remove than stainless steel if you brake one, and the threads don't gall like stainless on stainless. Of course, this is all coming from someone who not only likes the square nuts, but also likes old slot drive screws, and the Yankee Driver.

lol really wish there was another option than breaking them, they are on the back side of the dash and not sure they are not spot welded to the back of the dash "bolts that the square nuts are on" so breaking them would mean i would have to completely tear off the entire dash

Are these the ones holding the steering support bolts or something else? I have removed a lot of bolts from these trucks and they are the only square ones I know of behind the dash? What year is the truck? If it is the support bolts that bolt will break 9 out of 10 times due to their location and the water that condenses there. The best thing on any of these trucks if you don't want them to break is super high quality penetrating oil like Aero-kroil or similar. Let them soak for a few days before you try them.

did somemore looking under there today they arn't spotweld bolts but would still be hard as hell to get a grinder to them :)as far as year its a 39 lol not alot of room to play under that dash

When I took my bed apart it had square nuts underneath the runners. I took a 1/2" drive extension from my socket set and a wrench on the other end. Worked like a charm.

Darin

cool ty for the tip

Get a gator grip socket. It will conform to all kinds of shapes and sizes. Check it out @ www.gatorgrip.com