VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Fire on 38 coupe

Just saw this on another site. The car is a 38 Plymouth. According to the story the wheel came off the left rear and the gas tank drug the pavement and broke off the small drain valve. As you can see the car is toast.The good news is that the owner wasn't hurt. I've seen this valve sticking downward on my 38 gas tank.I think I'll go check the lug nuts !! This not a Chevrolet but it's worth mentioning since the valve is about the same.

Below is part of the article.

"1938 Plymouth Maiden Run -- Some Dude' in Massachusetts just finished this 1938 Plymouth on Friday April 29th 2011. Saturday April 30th, 2011 was to be a shakedown drive of about 50 miles just to see how it would run... While driving along and the left rear wheel came off ... the car dropped and the gas tank was punctured ... the rest, as they say, is history. He said all 5 lug nuts had come off and the studs were stripped on the updated 1990 Explorer rear end."

Steve,

Thanks for the photos. I really feel sorry for the owner of that Plymouth.

As in most cases, I wonder if the driver either got no warning of the loose wheel or merely ignored it. Seems to me that before all lug nuts came off there wheel would have been "raising sand." Don't know.

Its easy to second guess what went on to cause this disaster. I was just wondering, as we bystanders are prone to do, what chain of events lead to this toasted mess.

Did you ever see that NOVA production of the B-29 that was brought back to life, after many loving and hard hours of painstaking work, in Greenland? Makes you want to cry.

We all need to exercise caution and check everything, again. Especially, when we alter, rebuild or modify something. That goes for me, too.

Charlie

SAD

The 1938 Plymouth did not have lug nuts for the original wheel attachment. They had a stud with a hex head. The stud threaded into the axle and/or wheel hub.
That car had to have the most ugly look on its face of any 1938 car.

A face only a poor Plymouth owner could love...grin

BMWs are like that. The German idea was that everytime you take the rim off you drag the rim hole across the threaded studs, so to stop that ,they came up with hexhead BOLTS that hold the rim to the axle. In the tool box there is a tappered pin about 10 inches long with threads on one end. You screw that into one of the holes on the axle and then lift the rim over the pin. Now all you have to do is start the bolts and tighten them up. The threads are never abused. Pretty smart unless you can't find that tappered pin. It's hard to hold the rim up and try to start a bolt into the threads. Been there and done that..grin

It's not so much the lug nuts that concern me; what does is the union with the 40-80 year old studs.
Considering what may happen, it's very cheap insurance to replace both with new, whenever axle bearings are serviced or hubs mounted to new brake drums.
Also, it only take ten minutes longer to check the lug nuts with a torque wrench instead of relying solely on compressed air.


I had it happen once driving a 1970's Louisville 9000 with Budd wheels.
The warning was a three second vibration then all the studs sheered off.
Fortunately, the wheel stayed with the hub.
A 10-22 rolling uncontrollably down the highway at 65 mph can reek all kinds of havoc.

I saw that event over a year ago, don't remember who sent it to me. A few weeks after viewing it I took my newly restored 38 Cabriolet for the first ride. It took about two blocks and I heard a clunk, clunk. Wondering what it was, I pulled over promptly. All lug nuts were loose. Next time I paint rims I will clean the paint off where the nut sets.

Car must have had late model running gear. Article said he had a 1990 Explorer rear end.

This brings back memories. Ancient history now but it happend to me, without the catastrophic results. It was in 1972 my wife and two pre-teen sons were in route from California to the Street Rod Nationals in Detriot MI. The picture is on a Toll road skirting Chicago. The car was my first restoration, a street rod with small block Chevy, PG trans and 57 rear end. The restro-rod fad was in and I wanted stock wheels and wide whites. So I has wheel adapters on the rear to mount 6 lug wheels on the 5 lug rear. Big mistake!
All 5 studs sheared off without warning, the tire exited between the body and fender and hit the travel trailer we were towing, bounced over the car and rode the guard rail about a 1/4 mile. The hubcap was totaled. We made repairs beside the road and continued on. Jay

i`m going the check my lugs as soon as i get home.
i haven`t touched them in a few years.