Thanks for the info. Father-in-law just passed away, mother-in-law gave us his '90 4x4, and I don't know a damn thing about trucks. Hope I don't bug you people too much as I learn.

 

I think I used a whole can of Liquid Wrench getting my tire off four years ago. It helps to tighten-loosen several times until the rust crust is broken.


I think you can find out how to do anything to these trucks on this forum. Good luck.

 

3 foot piece of 1" galvanized pipe. Hammer one end flat- like screwdriver - bend last 6" of other end into L shape. Done

 

Thanks, 894Runner, for posting this thread. Reading it made me realize how long it had been since I even thought about my spare tire! I had to work to get it lowered but once it was down I was able to remove the spare tire carrier mechanism, clean it up, lubricate it with grease ( not WD40 ), reattach it, and re-hang the spare tire after puting 32psi of air pressure into it. The spare tire started off with ZERO air pressure in it. This is one of those out of sight/ out of mind things that so often bite us when we least expect it.

 

I have never been able to get a wheel out of that mistake most times tires are dry rotted.

The torch is my friend.

 

Here's what I did once I got to work on mine.

 

I have a 1994 2wd pickup and the spare removal is the same but one side of the little half circles on either side of the slot has busted off and the tire is winched up super tight so no wiggle room at all.....HELP???

 

If it is busted, makes me think that it is rusted up and someone tried to free it up. Might try soaking it down with PB Blaster for a few days and see what happens and see if you can get enough of the hook into it and drop it down. If it still wont come down, I would loosen the drivers side of the bed and remove the bolts on the passenger side and tilt the bed then remove the 4 bolts that holds the assembly to the frame wich will drop it down. If it rusted up that bad, you probably need to replace it.

 

I had no tools and I didnt want to pay more than $60 for them, so I made a spare tire removal tool out of stuff from Harbor Freight. Took me about 5 minutes due to the chisel falling out of the slot. bigger chisel might help.





this fit in a 16mm socket

 

I may just have to fabricate a tool from a circular tube that fits snugly over the round, drill a small hole through the middle, and push a dowel through it