I bought a high-power Milwaukee 1/2 in drive cordless M18 Fuel 18v Impact wrench. Today I purchased a 19mm Deep impact 6 pt and a 5 in impact extension, both of them from China, both of them inexpensive. I would have preferred to buy better quality pices, but I needed them now. I would have kept them, but when spinning off lug nuts, the socket vibrates more or less wildly.

Is this normal ? This is my first big impact gun. If this is not normal, I'm thinking about returning the pieces back to my local car parts store. Tools like this from stores like that are mostly cheap chinese imports, but sometimes that's Ok, but apparently not this time.

Being a milwaukee the gun is heavy and well made. The vibration of the socket and extension is so bad it vibrates this big gun as well. Last time I observed, I don't recall any gns used for wheel work vibrating in any mechancs hands of any shop I've been in.

Any and all advice much appreciated.

Never had an issue with my 20V DeWalt using old school Craftsman, maybe a slightly bent extension?

You need a caliper to measure the socket to see how much larger it measures than the nut.

For impact driver, I use Milwaukee 2767-22 Fuel High Torque 1/2" Impact Wrench w/ Friction Ring Kit. For sockets, I use Tekton deep impact sockets. I have not used an extender. I do not experience the vibration you describe.

How good (or bad) is the fit of the socket onto the lug nuts? How much play is there if you move in a RH then LH, back and forth motion? Is the play similar to that of another 19mm socket?

Will an 18mm socket fit on the nut? (I had something with 18mm nuts once. No jokes, please.)

Must add the importance of using 6-pt sockets, 12's suck butt on an impact!!

Cheap Pittsburg impact sockets work just fine with my Milfuckyee 1/2 impact. I use them weekly on automotive and farm equipment. Unless you use them every day cheap impact sockets are plenty good enough.

Extensions can create more of a rattled feeling with higher torque impacts.

A deep socket and an extension? That shouldn't be necessary for lug nuts, except sometimes for the rear wheels on some dually trucks. I generally only use the deep socket. As a general rule, use as few and as short extensions as needed, and don't hook multiple extensions together if you can use one longer one of the appropriate length.

Is the vibration during the initial loosening phase, or after the nut has loosened and is spinning off? (or the reverse, i.e., spinning on and then tightening) When the gun is not under a load, there should be minimal or no wobble with even long extensions.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

I would echo the advice of try it without the extension and see if the problem goes away.

quote:

Originally posted by bcereuss:
For impact driver, I use Milwaukee 2767-22 Fuel High Torque 1/2" Impact Wrench w/ Friction Ring Kit. For sockets, I use Tekton deep impact sockets. I have not used an extender. I do not experience the vibration you describe.

What he said.

Is it the socket vibrating or the hammer inside the impact? You said you haven't had a bigger impact before. Could be normal. Did the socket round off the lug nuts?

Jim

It's slop between the out of spec Chinese socket and nut, extension and socket, and extension to impact wrench. Add up all 3 out of spec joints and you can get a lot of slop giving the vibration etc. If you can, a deep impact socket direct to the impact driver would be the way to go.

Engine teardown guys I've worked around swear by Snap-On electric impacts.

Panasonic makes some really nice stuff and very powerful.

For sockets - Apex

You can minimize play and vibration by using sleeve locking sockets and extensions. These have a round sleeve that extends past the square drive socket that grips the shank of the extension. Best analogy is how HK uses barrel o-rings to improve lockup to the slide.

I suspect that vibration is due to the drive hole in the socket is off center. If so trigger your impact to as low a speed as you can and look at the socket, if you see the drive side wobbling you have a socket that is off center.

Personally I like either Milwaukee or Kobalt Impact sockets and extensions. They are well made and appear to be properly blackened. BTW, Black Oxide finishes rely on being saturated with oil to keep the rust away, so soak your impact sockets with WD-40, wait a day, and wipe them dry. Doing this fills the lattice structure of Black Oxide with oil thus acting as a corrosion inhibitor.

I also have a 1/2 Mil. cordless impact drivier and some probably cheap china sockets... I hardly ever use...(bought for emergency road service) also have two extensions .... never thought about slop in the fit of these causing excessive vibration.... good to know.

Did you accidentally buy a wobble extension?

Based on all of your analyses, I think I figured it out based on the many comments. First is the extension, you guys are right, I don't really need it. Second, I just rememberd that all of the lug nuts are cladded or wrapped instead of solid and chromed. Over the years various shops have torn up the cladding on all of the lug nuts, and as a result the socket is not able to slide completely down the full length of the hex of the nut, with various cuts and bunched up deformed cladding metal on the corners of the hex surfaces, preventing the socket from fitting properly on any of the nuts. Without an acceptable amount of fit, thus the vibration, because the socket doesn't slide freely on the nuts, nor centered becasue of all the damage to the cladding. One of them I had to hammer on just to get enough socket to grab for removal. I susequently cut off the cladding from the hex portion of that lug nut so I could put it back on to drive the truck.

This is my first big impact tool, and I appreciate you guys helping me figure this out.

Now I'm shopping for a new set of 24 lug nuts that fit. But I will not be buying any cladded lug nuts. After some web surfing, I found out that all motorheads without exception hate all cladded (wrappped capped) lug nuts for this exact reason. They say Ford trucks come with these types of nuts from the factory because they are cheap. So whatever I end up buying to replace them will be solid one-piece nuts w/out cladding or separate capped pieces. I've figured out I need 60 degree conical seat, 54 mm length (or approx 2.125 in long), and 21 mm socket hex size. I THINK I they are a 14x2 thread, but I have to verify that before ordering. I don't have thread gauge for 14x2, so I've got to figure out some other way to measure the thread size of the existing nuts, since the internet says my truck has come with more than one size of threads. Some say 14x2, other sources say different for the same truck year/model. Figuring this out would be simple for an auto mechanic or tradesman, but my lack of experience sizing threads will take me a little more work before I can order a new set.

quote:

figure out some other way to measure the thread size of the existing nuts

Take one to a hardware store and see what thread-size bolt it fits on.

Out of my league but if you are in a big enough town. find a nut and bolt house, they might could help.

IF you don't want to drop a ton on impact sockets Harbor Freight has them in two sets, Pittsburg (consumer) and Icon (Commercial) HF pitts the ICON brand vs Snap-On BTW, I'm not saying ICON is or is not as good or better for less, it's just what they promote.

Link to Impact Sockets

Yes the PIttsburgh stuff is Chinese, no it's not snap on or mac, but if you are just taking off your wheels from time to time and not earning a living doing it, meh... do you really need a $40 per socket set...

Other than that you can go through Pawn shops to find turned in pro tools.