Which penetrating fluid to use on Farmall A Rear Rims

Hello. I got my 1945 Farmall A jacked up and on jackstands. Want to remove the Right hand Cast hub from the A. My question to you all is what penetrating fluid should I use to get this thing to come loose?

There are probably hundreds of suitable penetrants available, but my personal favorite is 50/50 mix of diesel fuel and Marvel mystery oil. I'm sure you will hear several other suggestions and they will probably all work.

Ditto on what Rusty said. I use PB Blaster and Kroil, but they are not the only things in the world that work......... I just happen to like them.

Before you try the penetrating oil, use your air wrench to try and tighten each bolt of the hub a little. After doing that, reverse it for a quick tap or two. It will help to break loose the rust and let the oil soak in better. Should come out pretty well after that.

(quoted from post at 13:31:47 07/09/11) Hello. I got my 1945 Farmall A jacked up and on jackstands. Want to remove the Right hand Cast hub from the A. My question to you all is what penetrating fluid should I use to get this thing to come loose?

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Machinist's Workshop Mag published this a while back. I found it very interesting

They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants
with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from
a "scientifically rusted" environment.

*Penetrating oil .......... Average load*
None ........................... 516 pounds
WD-40 ..................... ... 238 pounds
PB Blaster .................... 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ............... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil .................... 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix...............53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic
transmission fluid and acetone. Note the "home brew" was better
than any commercial product in this one particular test. I use it all the time and found it works very well if not better than anything I have used.

Removing those can be no fun. Its a cast center so after spraying with anything let it soak for a while the get a big mall and bang away several places sooner or later it will come loose. I have had good luck just using three of the strud bolts loose and driving around but that won always work either. You are on jack stands so that wont work. Use the mall its heavy and thick so it can take some serious blows. Be careful as they weigh around 150 lbs.

" Hagens's Brew " = 50/50 mix of ATF & Acetone. Only problem I have with it is finding a squirt bottle that it doen't ruin in a couple days.

Commercially I like PB Blaster.

Tell that to a neighbor of Stevie there in Victorville who had a problem just like his. I told him to soak good with wv-40 hit pretty hard around the casst and a day later it came loose

(quoted from post at 05:01:42 07/10/11) Tell that to a neighbor of Stevie there in Victorville who had a problem just like his. I told him to soak good with wv-40 hit pretty hard around the casst and a day later it came loose

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I agree. WD40 DOES penetrate. The WD40 used to be the only thing we had, and it DID work. I use PB Blaster now.

WD40. It sure gets bashed. There may be better products, but it's all I use. It's cheap, easy to come by, and easy to clean up. If that won't get it I heat it up.

It definitely penetrates. I just got a Super C mounted planter freed up. It had sat in the dirt under a shed for too many years. I hit it with WD40 every day for a week then started working on it. Everything came loose and it works fine.

While I use the diesel/MMO mix at home, in the shop where I work I use Liquid Wrench (yellow can-not blue). No particular reason, it just works for me. Also doesn't seem to evaporate quite as fast as some penetrants.

Sure WD-40 will penetrate somewhat, but there are certainly better penetrating products out there. Yeah, it's better than nothing, and I have used it as a penetrating oil when it was the quickest or easiest available, but given a choice, it's way down the line. The best use, or success, I have had with it is on a Howard Miller wall clock we have had for about 30 years. It stopped running about 10-12 years ago... I packed paper towels in and around everything I could think of to soak up any oil before it got where I didn't want it. I flushed the works with WD--40, let it wick out as much as possible, and it's been running ever since.
If it's all you've got, by all means use it... as I said, it's "about" worthless, not toally worthless.

so why is everyone bashing WD40 then? its only 24 lbs. over pb blaster.

Ok, so if everyone is satisfied with what they use for "snake oil", then life is good. There are so many variables in a test like this, that it is interesting reference data, but doesn't necessarily mean it is the totally emcompassing end-all, be-all answer.

Mr. Nicholson will weigh in on my next comment. Benchmark testing is performed in carefully controlled, multiple test environment. Statistical variation and standard deviation plays into the type of statement they make in the referenced article. Chemically rusting a bunch of bolts, then using a tourque wrench to determine which penetrant works best is not statistically meaningful. Run the test multiple times, in a variety of conditions, also taking into account lubricity and surface tension of the liquid, and flow characteristics at what abient temp would make me sit up and take notice.

Without knowing the base test cases, and how many different tests were used, as I said, it is interesting, but not the end of the story. So before this trails off into a debate similar to which spark plug to use, or what oil to use, or whether or not these engines require tetraethyl lead, lets just say there are multiple choices. I posted last week about the physics and chemistry behind penetrating liquids and breaking the rust bond. Take a look at that post, and then consider what has been said here.

Bottom line, if your product or home made mix makes you smile and sweat less, and make less trips to the welding supply to fill your tanks, then by all means, GO FOR IT! God bless, and have a nice day!