tensioning a wheel - spokes are stuck

No, it isn't mine (thank G-d!) ;)

Since I've borrowed a tensiometer and was planning to check and tighten up my home-built wheel, and check my other wheels while I'm at it, my dh decided he should maybe take a look at his rear wheel, which has been making rattly noises for a while. He's used it for commuting daily, through the 3 last winters, and rides trails with it too so it's seen hard use.

The wheel was fairly round and straight but the tension was awful, no more than half of what it should have been. But almost every single spoke is stuck. Turning the nipple, by screwdriver or nipple wrench, just made the spoke wind up, even when holding the spoke with a wrench. We dabbed a drop of oil on each nipple in advance, to no avail. They look visibly corroded.

Can he expect to be able to loosen these, or should he just go buy a new wheel, and plan on rebuilding the original wheel with new spokes? I'm not too optimistic about oil being able to work its way into those tiny threads.

Brass nipples or aluminum? I would keep trying the penetrating oil, lube the nipples from both the spoke and rim sides, and let it sit for awhile.

I've had a few individual nipples seize up like this, and I was able to correct the situation by replacing just the nipple.

Oil - even a very light oil like sewing machine oil or 3-in-1 - isn't likely to do much good. This is where you want a penetrating lubricant like Liquid Wrench, WD-40 or LPS-1.

Wipe off the oil you've applied, take the tire, tube and rim strip off, and apply a drop of penetrating lubricant at both sides of each nipple. Then let the wheel sit overnight (or at least 4-5 hours). After that, if some of the nipples will turn but some of them are still stuck, IMO it's worth it to try a second drop on those.

With any luck, that'll buy you some time to where you can rebuild the wheel on your own schedule, or at the very least you'll be able to get most of the spokes out without using snips. :rolleyes: But the bottom line is once there's corrosion in the threads, they'll continue to corrode. You can often clean large fasteners with Scotch-Brite and/or a wire brush, but spokes, well...

I had a wheel like that. Oiled the nipples, let it sit overnight, and tried again. Some freed up and some didn't. Oiled again, sit overnight, a few more freed up. Did this for about 5 days until finally I could turn them all. I also spin the wheel hard several times after oiling on the theory that centrifugal force will help the oil penetrate. Good luck. If they don't turn, well, you cut them out and start over.

Thanks ladies, you really are the best :)