OK guys, had a little time today to goof off with the truck and decided to rotate the tires. When I was taking the tire iron out of the pack I saw all the other stuff and decided to play with the spare tire. You know, make sure it is tight and that I know how to operate everything incase I have to do it in the dark.

I'd be damned if I couldn't figure out how to get the tire down! I tried to insert the rod thingy into the tube to raise and lower the tire and it wouldn't go in past the first rod due to the clip connect things. I tried for about 30 minutes or so until I gave up and rotated the tires. Yes I did RTFM and it is absolutely useless.

Another royal PITA were the lug nuts. I think the lug nuts were put on by the factory gorilla! I ended up taking the tire iron and taking a 14mm boxed end wrench to make a "cheater bar" since I couldn't find my usual cheater pipe. I finally got all of them off, but in the process of using the improvised cheater bar I took a nice long piece of paint off the passenger's side front coner panel on the rear/bottom portion where it meets up with the door.[:@] How I did that and didn't touch the door, I'll never know. Time for some touch up paint.

When I took all the lug nuts off the left rear tire, I couldn't pull it off! I then had to put the lug nuts back on and rock the truck back and forth to break it loose. Had a little bit of corrosion back there which was taken care of.
I used my torque wrench and torqued them to 90 ft/lbs. I think that is what the new factory spec is. If it is wrong just let me know.

Needless to say, I'm gonna pay someone to do it next time.

What I did learn is that I have plenty of brake pad left on all the pads. Probably around 60-70%. Right now I've got right at 12K miles.
Hope everyone enjoys thier weekend!

 

Hey Doc,
It took me a while one dark morning on the way to work when I destroyed a perfectly good off-road tire because someone dropped something dark and plastic in the middle of the road. The jack wrench goes on the the little extension backwards and the lug wrench is used like a ratchet on the other. Just think, they actually pay someone to dream up this stuff, but it works, and better than some stuff I've had to use in the past. Yes the lugs are a b*tch to get off, they're torqued to 100 ft/lbs if I remember right. A little anti seize helps this on the threads. Sometimes I wish they would figure out a way to pack a small hydraulic floor type jack under the seat or something, but then, what would the jack designer guy do for a living------maybe make some sort of complicated to operate toaster--who knows

 

All I have is the 3 long round tubes that are square on the ends and the tire iron. What is the jack wrench? I'm a little confused. Got any pics?

 

Sorry,

No Pics, no digital camera yet, looking at one for xmas
The three long tubes are plugged together just like extensions for socket set. The large hollow end of the extension is what is used to turn the shaft that lowers the spare. The angled lug wrench has a square cut into it approx in the middle, that fits onto the solid square end of the extensions, with the lug part pointing out (away) from the ext shafts. Its used like a convention socket set and extensions only upside down, weird--I Know, but thats how it works

Hope this helps

 

OK. Are the extensions supposed to go all the way in? I can only get 1 extension in the tube. I can then turn the tube, but nothing happens. Maybe I'll have to go to the dealer to see what is going on. Good thing I didn't have a flat or something.

 

Doc,
I looked all over the FSM for something pertaining to how it works and nothing is mentioned. I hate to ask this but did you check out the owners manual?? Seems I had to the first time. Oh, by the way, the lug nuts are torqued to 95 ft lbs on a 1500, mine are 145 ft lbs, no wonder they seemed really tight

 

According to my manual, the lugs should be torqued to 135 ft lbs.

TORQUE CHART
TORQUE SPECIFICATIONS
DESCRIPTION Ft. Lbs.

1500 Series
Lug Nut 9/16 X 18 with 60° Cone
135

2500 Series
Lug Nut 9/16 X 18 with 60° Cone
135

3500 Series
Lug Nut 9/16 X 18 with Flat Washer
145

 

Yes, I did read the manual..It was the first thing I did. It wasn't really descriptive, just insert and turn conterclockwise. I looked down the tube and didn't see anything that the extensions were supposed to hook into. When I turned the extensions, it did turn the tube that it was in, but nothing happened. I turned it counter clockwise like 25 times and the tire didn't budge.

As far as the lug nut torque, I think they lowered it to 90 ft/lbs when they were having all of the trouble with the warped rotors. Not for sure though.

 

Thanks for posting this question. Tomorrow when the sun is out I'm gong to try and see if I can get my spare tire out. Never thought to try and see how that thing works.

 

Doc, That shaft that is down in there simply turns a spool that cable wraps around. If you turned it that much and nothing happened, something is wrong. With that many turns, my spare was on the ground. I wonder if there is some kind of shipping bolt that may not have been removed. If so, crank that back up (clockwise) to spool up the cable so it doen't land on your head---OUCH!!!