Put one new Rear Brake on my 1994 Ford Explorer today.  The other rear tire and wheel would not come off the car--Lug nuts removed fine, but I think the steel/iron hub in the center has rusted enough to the aluminum wheel to freeze it up.  I tried replacing and removing the lug nuts, replacing them and driving a few yards with them loose.  Couldn't get it to pop loose.  I am going to soak the hub/wheel junction with WD-40 over the week and see if I can get that to work.  Then get a 6' 2 x 4  and pry it off with leverage on the frame across the back of the wheel.

The other question involves the exhaust manifold leak.  I did pinpoint it to the left side of the engine.  It feels like the leak is near one of the cylinders, and may not be in the manifold, but in a blown gasket.  I can see the 6 bolts that attach the manifold to the engine easily enough, but I am afraid of shearing off a bolt if it is frozen.  The connection of the manifold to the start of the exhaust pipe has 2 bolts (supposed to be two bolts).  The head of one (at the muffler side of the connection) is gone--so there is no connection to that side, the remaining part of the bolt is apparently frozen to the manifold part of the connection.

I'm thinking it's better to suck it up and pay someone to fix it--new manifold gasket and put a new bolt in place at the connection.  

Any ideas on what it might cost to do that?

Thanks!!

AFARR

PS--the Gasket is about $7 from parts places or online.  

********UPDATE BELOW*******

Nah, just break out the JB Weld on that manifold.

Ghetto rigging rocks, cheap and fun..

;)

Getting the wheel off shouldn't be too hard.  Leverage won't do it, what you need is vibration, and a real penetrating oil.  Liquid Wrench is good, I hear Kroil is ok too.  WD-40 sucks for this application.  Get behind that wheel and soak down the area where the wheel meets the hub.  Use your 2X4 or a good heavy plastic or rubber mallet and pound on that wheel gently (not near the rim!) and the vibration will greatly help the penetrating oil seep into the frozen area.  Come back in an hour or two and repeat, it should pop right off.

Same thing with the frozen exhaust manifold bolt.  Soak them good when it is still warm (NOT hot....do not cause a fire!  WARM NOT HOT!), tap with rubber or plastic mallet.  When it cools, soak and tap again.  Patience is key.  Let sit for awhile then carefully try and remove the bolts.  

The good news is, if you snap the bolts off, you can then remove the manifold and the remains of the bolts should be much easier to remove, as they are likely frozen to the manifold rather than to the head casting.

It is a pain in the rear though.  As far as cost, you won't be able to pin it down.  Figuring $60/hour labor, they might get the bolts right out, cost would be reasonable.  Then again, they might snap every one of them off at the manifold and then snap them off again at the head casting, then have to pull the head and drill out the studs to replace them!  It is impossible to predict, but now you are looking at serious money.  

If you choose to DIY, pulling a head is not very hard.  I did one side on an 70's Mustang in about 2 hours, had the valves done, then reassambled in about 3 hours.

Hope this helps!

To pay or not to pay.. that is the question.. [:)]

If the exhaust leak is minimal, I would leave it alone..  You do stand a good chance of twisting off a bolt. I would shock them with an impact socket and gun. if you do shear off one, you'll have to buy an easy out and drill bit to get it out..  hardened bolts are a bitch to drill sometimes. a mechanic will charge you 50 bucks an hour for the repair.    good luck

I have a crane truck that the wheels were stuck to the drums too.  Just position a short piece of 2 by 12 wood behind the wheel and hit the wood with a good sized sledge hammer..  the wood will keep you from messing up the back sides of your aluminum rim..

Kroil will do the job.  Make sure you use enough of it, and give it some time to work, anywhere from 12 hour to a week will do the trick.  

GunLvr

My experience with exhaust work (catylitic converter on a 91 Firebird) is that anything rusted (and almost everything is usually rusted) is usually dremel-fodder...

For my car (GM LT1 V8), a new set of heads, headers (replacing the DOA manifold), and a new forward exhaust pipe would probably be $700-800 for parts off E-bay ($400 heads, $150 headers, $150 exhaust pipe, shipping) if self installed. That would fix your leak (since you would have replaced all the leak-causing parts...) Don't know about Ford parts, though... There's a bigger market for DIY Firebird parts than Explorer parts (or so it seems, based on Ebay hits for 'LT1 heads')...

Turns out the exhaust leak was all at the first connection with the broken stud.  The guy at Merlin showed me where it was, and that the exhaust was blowing back to the engine (there was nothing wrong with the gasket--actually there is no gasket in this vehicle--or the exhaust header/manifold area).

Total cost to fix $52.00.

Now I just need to keep soaking the hub so I can finish the brake job.

AFARR