You can also grind the stud off from the back side and then rather easily tap it right out the front. No worry of damaging the wheel that way. With that you can also slide a new stud in and weld it in place if you so choose.

 

Thanx for the responses. I have to say I like the idea of having a lock w/same key as the door/ignition. I think maybe I'll grind off the back and take it into a local locksmith and have a key made. Maybe then I can just re-weld the stud back in.

Rex
I have to say that I have been following your thread but not quite at page 100 yet. I have a bunch of questions that will prolly get answered before I hit page 167 lol. We both have 96 LTs. Your spare is on the same Rim as my truck came with. Now I have 6 of them lol. I have no use for the one on the rack. It was free because it was stuck on the carrier. I started an every day driver build on my truck. I hope it will be as interesting to follow as yours ....

 

OK. I ground off the welded stud from the rear with my angle grinder. I'm a little clumsy with gyro spinning heavy tools. They runaway better than they take guidance :-( The backside if the carrier was scarred up but nobody is gonna see it anyway. It has a coat of satin black and the lug/lock thing is on my console til I have time to see a locksmith.

This tire carrier thing has had it's ups and downs and seems to go on and on. I am documenting it with pictures but hate to leave folks hangin for a long time between posts. I figure when it's done or near done I will just add the project to my build post with all the images. I'm sure the pix alone will get a lot of laughs