350X Questions AGAIN!! Alloy rims/castle nuts?

[nouseforaname90]

Grr. This axle is really ticking me off! lol. One of the castle nuts came off easily, and the other still won't budge. I heated it up, and then I actually put so much force on it that it nearly broke my vice off!!
So my question is, if I were to just split the nut off, how much would it be to replace? Can you buy them new??

And another question.. what do you guys use to clean your aluminum rims? The ones on the X are real dirty and have some grease on them that is hard to get off, so I was wondering what you'd use.
I spent about half an hour out there with Mother's and a rag cleaning up one spot to see how nice i could get it.. and its really nice under the grime, but it'd take about 2 horus a wheel to get it real nice, and thats just too long. What kind of powertools and accessories would you use?

Ben

[1DEADPRESIDENT]

How many castle nuts do you need? My forks were very neglected and looked terrible. I wet sanded them and also cleaned them with some SOS pads. After that I went back with mothers and wenol polish and they turned out great.

[nouseforaname90]

Just one. But if I got new ones that were shiny, I was going to get 2 so I didn't have to paint any.

[nouseforaname90]

Nothing? I'm hoping to find out that I can get brand new castle nuts from a hardware store :) -crosses fingers-

[1DEADPRESIDENT]

I have a handfull of used ones if you need a few...PM me ;) if not good luck....

[nouseforaname90]

Ahh!! FINALLY! I was planning on just cutting the nut off and taking the hub off, and then getting a new castle nut.. but me and my dad were just out there and FINALLY got it off. That thing was TIGHT.
I had to stand on it (260 lbs) and hold a pipe wrench on the axle to keep it from spinning while my dad put an adjustable w/ a 5 foot piece of pipe on the nut and put all his weight into it. It took a few tries, but she came off. Whew! It felt so good to get that darn thing off.. lol.
Thanks anyway, DeadPres!

Now onto the subject of polishing the rims.. any suggestions?

[Tri-ZNate]

For the rims I use some oven cleaner. Cleans them up nice. As for the mothers my friend just used some polishing up his harley carb and said it takes forever for the mothers to start working unless you scuff it up real good with like 100 grit sandpaper then use the mothers. Came out awesome I must say. Gonna try it on my forks and rims this weekend.

[nouseforaname90]

Oven cleaner won't hurt tires?

[Tri-ZNate]

spray some on a rag and rub the blemishes off the rim. Then use some mothers for the finishing touch

[cliff2302]

make sure you check your threads and see if they are damaged, If it put up that much of a fight they may be tweaked a little.

[nouseforaname90]

Nope. Now that we have it off, it goes smoothly onto my other axle. I can't figure out why it was so hard to get off..