How I temporarily secured a spare tire that was partially hanging down due to a faulty release mechanism. When I finally got a chance to get under the vehicle and elevate it higher to better work on removing and replacing it, after about 12 hours of trying a lot of different methods to get the spare tire off, I was finally able to get the spare tire removed. It turns out it was not the actual cable. It was some sort of locking mechanism that is bolted under the frame of the van that had frozen or rusted shut thereby making the spare tire pretty much impossible to remove without power tools. So all the WD40 in the world and pulling on this cable was not going to help in this situation. Maybe a faulty design? Anyway, at least I got a few laughs out of all the techniques I ended up trying. Haha.
In hindsight what would I do differently? Having now known what the problem was. Well, in hindsight I probably should have taken an angle grinder and just tried to cut off the butterfly flaps on the part that holds tire underneath. Cut just enough off of the butterfly flaps so that the center hole of the tire rim can come over the tire holder. That would have probably been a whole lot quicker. But if you do that, be very careful. When you cut off the butterfly flaps the whole tire could suddenly come down on you. So brace or strap the tire somehow so it won't fall down on top of you. Also, the angle grinder is going to create sparks. So make sure you have protections in place so the sparks don't get into fuel lines, or the gas tank etc.
This is for a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan. But it also might apply toward any older 2005 Chrysler Town and Country van if it has the Stow and Go seats with the spare tire under the Driver seat.
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