How I Changed Rear Wheel Studs (Tech Guide)

I couldn't find a decent tech article on this so I thought I'd make one....

The problem I had was a wobbly rear stud. I figured you have to buy them as a set of five so why not just replace the lot? I had previously fitted Nismo studs to the front to use with 5mm spacers but the rears are a little more involved.

For starters these are the tools I used. The whole job took just under an hour from lifting the car to packing the tools away.



I had to use hex keys as my GTR rear rotors are bolted in with hex head nuts... pain in the arse really I think I spent more on a set of 1/2" hex keys than it would have cost for someone else to do the job! Still there's nothing quite like getting your own tools dirty.

So first step take the wheel off, this is what you're left with. Note jack stands under the subframe on both sides, and a trolley jack under the diff. Safety first!



First step is to remove the caliper. One bolt top and one bottom. Remove these completely. I found the T handle bar useful as I only have a 600mm breaker bar and there just isn't enough to swing one under there.





Another tech article I have read suggested bolting the caliper to the front of the hub, but I found it easier to sit it behind the rotor. There's plenty of room and plenty of play in the lines (goodridge braided lines, stock may be different?), just be careful not to let it get caught up in the axle.



Next step is to remove the rotor. In my case I had to loosen the handbrake shoes first. Do this by rotating the rotor until the adjustment hole is at the bottom as pictured below. You will need to pull the rubber plug out.




The adjustment hole gives access to a starwheel that is used to adjust the handbrake. Rotate it down to loosen the shoes. Even with the shoes loosened significantly I still had to use a rubber mallet to remove the rotor.

With the rotor off you have access to the hub and handbrake shoe assembly.



Now there's no room to pull the studs, and I hate dealing with shoes.... so I found the easiest solution was to remove one of the shoes enough that I had room to access the studs. On both sides I removed the shoe closest the front of the car.

First step remove the spring pictured below, locking pliers (vice grips) are your friend. Unhook the end pictured on the left (of the spring -centre of the assembly), keep a close eye on it though as the other end can easily fall out of the shoe once you start moving things around.



The remove the pin pictured below. Simply push in with a flate blade screwdriver and turn. Put the pin and the spring that sits underneath it to one side. Don't lose anything!



With the above pieces removed you should have enough room to manipulate the shoe off to one side. Secure it by poking the top behind the hub as pictured below.



The next part is easy. I used the claw hammer to knock the old studs out through the rear of the hub. I have read another article that suggests using a nut or similar on the end of the old studs to prevent the threads being damaged but these are going straight in the bin so I couldn't see the need. I did squirt the base of the studs with some Nu Lube (Nulon brand lube). A few sharp taps and out they come.

Your next step is to insert the new studs. I sprayed liberally with Nu Lube and pushed the splines into place by hand. I didn't want to use a ratchet until the studs were secure for fear of damaging the splines.



Now thread a stack of washers over the stud. I used a packet of ten 1/2" flat washers from my local auto one. Now the other tech article I read suggested using a standard nut (M12 x 1.25) to pull the studs through but I had an old set of wheel nuts and couldn't see the harm in using one of those. I made sure to pick one that threaded on easily by hand so as not to risk damaging the threads on the new studs.



Torque the wheel nut with a ratchet. You may wish to use a pry bar or similar to stop the hub from turning... see picture below.



Pull the stud all the way through, see picture below. Notice the gap between the head of the stud and the wheel hub has closed.



Spin and repeat as needed I changed all five studs on both wheels. I didn't need to but having gone to this much trouble I figured I may as well. Not to mention the studs come in packs of five from conceptz... better fitted to the car than taking up room in the garage. Now I did find that the washers deformed due to the shape of the wheel nuts I was using but this was easily solved by rotating the washers so that the one on top (and making contact with the wheel nut) was always new. A standard nut may be a better option where possible.

And that's really it.

Once you have changed the studs reassemble the handbrake shoes in the reverse order of above. Reinsert the pin and the refit the spring on the top of the shoe. Replace the rotor and refit the caliper. Tighten the caliper bolts to 80nm (thanks Beaver). I had a really hard time getting a torque wrench on to the caliper bolts due to the extra length of the hex key fitting. I managed to torque the top bolt but had to use an 8mm allen key to get the lower bolt "tight enough" as there just wasn't enough clearance.

Access the starwheel previously used to loosen the handbrake shoes and rotate it upwards until the shoes are expanded completely and you cannot rotate the caliper. Then rotate the starwheel down four to six clicks. You should be able to turn the caliper by hand but still feel some drag. Replace the rubber plug.

Refit the wheel, lower the car, and tighten wheel nuts to 100nm.

Anyway I enjoyed documenting this little job and I hope someone finds the writeup useful.

 

Ha love it and yes I think judging from the rust and shit on the rotors the car definately needs a good flogging. Maybe this weekend if I'm lucky.......

 

Mate I would love to.... I love Kiama and have fond memories of the last time I was there (for a mates 21st, nearly six years ago?) but can't. I've got two jobs on that day, one I have organised staff for but the other I have to be at in person. Just bad luck hey! But yeah itching to get out and about, it's been years since I made it to any kind of event with the car.... and thanks, I couldn't find the answers I was looking for before I attempted the job so hopefully someone else will benefit from the writeup.

 

Cheers Eric and I need to have things in bits again sometime soon to get the rotors machined but that's going to have to wait for another day.

I'm sure you know what you're taling about saying the studs can come out with the shoes in place, but I just couldn't find any room? I know what you're saying re shoes, hence why I hate working with them! I almost thought about taking the hub off -I have 3/4" drive ratchets with a big enough socket but don't have a 3/4" torque wrench and didn't want to leave the the hub nut "good enough"

 

Yeah I was thinking at one stage of pulling the hub to get the studs out without mucking around with the shoes, but decided to harden up and do as above.

I think ABW make hub nut sockets in 1/2" drive but none in my toolbox. I scored the 3/4" stuff off my grandad when sold his tractor -still waiting for a chance to use it

 

Yeah but if you follow steps in the original post it shouldn't let go, just got to be careful!