Spare Tire Woes...

[deyomatic]

Are you KIDDING ME? This is how GM designed the spare tire system so that when I break down on the side of the road THIS is what I have to do to save myself?

Anyway, I've been wrestling with this $%^( for an hour now and the wheel won't drop. The cable drops, but the wheel stays up there dangling. The owners manual says to use the two wheel chocks with the jack on top to press it upward to release the secondary latch mechanism...that's not working, either. I used a 4x4 piece of wood instead because I must have more knowledge of physics than the average GM designer and it took only seconds to find out that a jack that is heavier than the two chocks won't balance on the chocks well enough to press up on the wheel...

Any tips? I'm ready to cut the cable and remove the whole system and use a can of fix a flat because there's no chance I'll ever live through the heart attack that would be caused by the stress of doing this on the side of the road sometime, and if I need AAA to come get me my spare anyway, I can just call them to come pick me up and bring me to a tire shop...

I hope "The New GM" figures this out and makes the necessary design changes...

(Sorry for the rant, I've been through this twice- my work truck, and now my own...)

[SkylineNXS]

Instead of pushing up with the chocks and jack, if u fully tighten the cable and then try and tighten it further, give it some pulses, maybe the secondary will release and then it will drop normally? Ive never had an issue with mine, but thats mine...

BRAD

[deyomatic]

I tried that several times, tightening it as much as I could, but not wanting to damage the square end of the shaft- the metal doesn't look too tough.

I was annoyed about a lot of things here...partly about the design, but I realized afterward that I was most upset about the owner's manual's inability to give good instructions or to describe the catch mechanism at all. If it had, I might have known what motion needed to be achieved to get it to drop, but it's all hidden on the top side of the wheel.

I wanted it done. It was probably fine to drive on it with the screw in the tread (I've known of people doing that for thousands of miles and just airing up every week) but I'm a nutjob, and I'd never be comfortable with a screw in my tire.

I was able to get to the bolt that holds the mechanism under the bed and loosen that and it hung there for awhile not being able to get the right angle to actually drop...eventually I got it to the ground and the back side didn't seem any simpler to figure out. I wrestled with it but ultimately assumed something was rusted and it wasn't releasing fully. Again, I came back to my original assumption that I'll NEVER EVER want to go through this crap on the side of the road, so I cut the shaft in the center to free the wheel. Afterwards, I looked at the two pieces and it looked like it might have been a simple mechanism, but I had no ill feelings about tossing it into the trash. There's some fix a flat in the cab and if I get really worried I'll grab a replacement hoist (or find one of better design) and make it work.

Thanks.

[SkylineNXS]

Yea after enough hours of frustration, cuttin the crap up that pisses u off is always fun, haha. Ive had a few issues with nails and screws in a few tires b4, and i find that the tire repair kits that are sold work very well. I repaired a nail hole on my sisters focus the day b4 i left for california and over the 5000 miles there and back i had no problems. I would recommend grabbing one of these kits, there pretty cheap, and they work great. Good luck....

BRAD