Cast iron weights from elevator shaft - AND then vehicle lug nut issues

Chicken lights

Chicken lights

Forum Pony Express Driver
Susquatch said:
While we are on the subject of changing wheels, here are two tools everybody who drives a vehicle should have.

The first is easy to buy. I keep a kit in every vehicle I own as well as in the shop. The kits in a box are perfect.

LEXIVON 1/2-Inch Impact Socket Set, 6 Total Lug Nut Size | Innovative Flip Socket Design Cover Most Commonly Inch & Metric Used Sizes | Cr-Mo Steel = Fully Impact Grade (LX-111) https://a.co/d/hK3hxUB

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There are lots of alternatives. Can you say handy? Handy handy handy! Belongs in your car repair kit. Especially useful when you don't know the nut size on your daughter-in-law's car!

Here is another one. Some vehicles already come with this one, but most don't. If your vehicle wheels have removable studs instead of nuts, this kit clobbers how easy it is to mount a heavy tire and wheel on the wheel hub. You just screw one of these into the top hole and slide the wheel onto it. Then you can install the other studs and then remove the alignment stud. I use it to remove the wheel too so it doesn't come off and splash mud in my face..... Anyone who has ever changed a tire on the side of the road knows the drill....

If you have a lathe, these are also easy to make for yourself.

OEMTOOLS Wheel Stud Alignment KIT, Multi, One Size, 24233 https://a.co/d/9sBWCaL

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With all due respect- if you’re able to teach your clan some survival skills, that’s fantastic, but the average human I’ve tripped across in the last 20 years is helpless. People think I’m performing magic when I straighten their steer tires and put some ice salt under the drives and they get unstuck. Or more magic when I shovel around the tires, straighten the steers and rock it out. Or more magic when I pop out a farmers jack and jack up their trailer to change a flat. Or kicking a tire repeatedly to break the rust free or grabbing a large hammer to do the same. I’m not even kidding one bit, last winter had to help two adult men use booster cables

I don’t think the average human stocks any emergency kit in their car anymore, because they wouldn’t know how to deploy it
 
Susquatch

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Chicken lights said:
With all due respect- if you’re able to teach your clan some survival skills, that’s fantastic, but the average human I’ve tripped across in the last 20 years is helpless.
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With all due respect??? Are you kidding me???

Just to be clear, those recommendations were for forum members. I don't think they are the average human.

But I get your point.

I was invited to speak at the Rotary Club just recently. In preparing what I would say, I looked at the average age of the members and realized that they would all remember:

Holding the choke plates open to get a flooded engine going.

Drying off spark plug wires and distributor caps to start a car in the rain.

Using the brakes to get more traction in the snow (yes, and salt and straight wheels too)

How to use a snow shovel.

How to avoid ruining a differential pin by spinning your tires like a mad man stuck in the snow.

How to heat the battery a wee bit before cranking in really cold weather.

What a block heater is.

What it was like to call for help from the middle of no-where with no cell phone.

I invited questions during my talk, not afterward.

What a great talk it was - lots of laughs, ear to ear smiles, and nodding heads. Lots of ladies who knew what a choke plate was!

I'd do that talk again in a heart beat!
 
DPittman

DPittman

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Chicken lights said:
With all due respect- if you’re able to teach your clan some survival skills, that’s fantastic, but the average human I’ve tripped across in the last 20 years is helpless. People think I’m performing magic when I straighten their steer tires and put some ice salt under the drives and they get unstuck. Or more magic when I shovel around the tires, straighten the steers and rock it out. Or more magic when I pop out a farmers jack and jack up their trailer to change a flat. Or kicking a tire repeatedly to break the rust free or grabbing a large hammer to do the same. I’m not even kidding one bit, last winter had to help two adult men use booster cables

I don’t think the average human stocks any emergency kit in their car anymore, because they wouldn’t know how to deploy it
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Oh ain't that true. Or when all they know is to step on the gas pedal and spin their tires widely and they just can't figure out why they can't move ahead.
 
T

Tom O

Ultra Member
What a great talk it was - lots of laughs, ear to ear smiles, and nodding heads. Lots of ladies who knew what a choke plate was!

Of course it’s where they hang their purse!


I went to partsource and bought 24 new solid lug nuts for $170.00 that is much better than the $320.00 Speedy/Apollo wanted so I’ll put them on tomorrow and go back to Apollo to get the Void warranty taken off ( because of the lugs not torqued ) i can’t believe that they would void the brake job because of lugs.
 
Darren

Darren

Ultra Member
Premium Member
I wasn't going to comment on the lug nut issues but I have some experience. Long time auto(licensed)/heavy truck tech

Swelling capped lugs sucks. I have had some big battles with them, including using annular cutters, torches and welders to remove them, when they get really messed up. Somewhere i have pics of me wrapping $3500 MB wheels in copper flashing in order to remove the capped lug bolts without harming the rims by welding washers and nuts to the rounded bolts.. Got them all off without a mark, but this never should have happened in the first place.

Overtorqued vs undertorqued wheels: They are both a big problem. I have seen tons of issues with corrosion and rusty hubs cause an under torqued situation, rusty studs causing under clamping force (lack of stud stretch, clamping force) , incorrect fasteners - alloy shank style nuts/washers on steel winter wheels, etc. I have seen overtorqued nuts snap studs. My brother had a broken side window on his truck, found a snapped off stud/nut on the seat from a passing truck. Lots of case studies in both situations. Interesting note, U-Haul has a sticker on the side of the trailers - 50 ft/lbs with never seize on the studs. I have a pic somewhere. Ford recommends a drop of oil on their 2 piece flat face nut/washers. They even had a recall on them and ive personally seen Ford dually wheels come off when torqued to spec because the washer seized up and therefore couldnt develop the clamp force.

Personally, I put a dab of neverseize on all the studs, and around the hub register, everything clean, no corrosion, and reduce torque spec by 20% (ie spec:100 ft/lbs gets 80) and have never had one come off or loosen or need more rotation on subsequent retorques. About 80% of what I do now is commercial with flags, and anything moving would show up right away.
 
phaxtris

phaxtris

(Ryan)
Premium Member
Premium Member
I understand the thought behind anti seize or oil on the threads of wheel studs, I have done it myself (not any more) but unless actually advised in the service manual it's not recommended. The use of a friction modifier like antisieze can actually increase the clamping force/bolt load by reducing the amount of friction required to reach a certain torque value

@Darren is doing the right thing by reducing the torque value, is 20% enough or to much, I dont know, maybe he has an advisement that says so

Just something to keep in mind for the guys doing it at home
 
F

Former Member

Guest
Janger said:
What the hell is Ford thinking? That's crap. Can you buy regular solid steel wheel nuts? Imagine trying to get those bolts off on the side of the highway in the dark. Tom O why don't you start a class action lawsuit. I was reading about this and apparently Ford says don't use power wrenches on the nuts as this starts the rust. Ever seen a tire shop or dealer NOT use power wrenches?
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Hate to say, not only FORD used them, so did GM and Dodge, off shore manufactures didn't.
 
F

Former Member

Guest
phaxtris said:
I understand the thought behind anti seize or oil on the threads of wheel studs, I have done it myself (not any more) but unless actually advised in the service manual it's not recommended. The use of a friction modifier like antisieze can actually increase the clamping force/bolt load by reducing the amount of friction required to reach a certain torque value

@Darren is doing the right thing by reducing the torque value, is 20% enough or to much, I dont know, maybe he has an advisement that says so

Just something to keep in mind for the guys doing it at home
Click to expand...
APP iEngineer gives you both dry and lubricated values. It also supplies you a lot of other information.
 
phaxtris

phaxtris

(Ryan)
Premium Member
Premium Member
Degen said:
APP iEngineer gives you both dry and lubricated values. It also supplies you a lot of other information.
Click to expand...

Cool app, might put you in hot water if there were ever litigation over a wheel comming off (for any reason) as you are now taking the liability for the specification of the bolt torque

Always the safer bet from a liability standpoint to have a stamped engineered specification...shifts liability from you to the engineer....especially for a buisness, the liability in a motor vehicle accident can run into the millions in the blink of an eye
 
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