VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Replacing Wheel Studs

Thanks to all the great advice from this forum I am making progress on my 1937 Master coupe (GB).

Last weekend I balanced the wheels and tires. After I mounted the wheels I used a torque wrench to do the final tightening of the lug nuts. The results were not encouraging!

There were a 3 studs that I could not even torque to 50 ft. lbs. The stud and lug nut threads are good so I am assuming the stud is yielding. I was able to tighten the rest to 60 ft. lbs. but did not try beyond that.

I am thinking the best action is to replace all the studs and lugs just to be safe and feel confident that I will not have problems.

Questions
Can the rear studs be replaced without pulling the axle shafts?

Are there any tricks or tips to replacing the front studs?

Does anyone know the Dorman part number for the studs and lug nuts? I know that the front and rear studs are different.

Is 80 ft. lbs. a reasonable lug nut torque?

Thanks for the help!

I don't think you will want to go beyond 65 ft lbs on the studs.

What happens when you say you can't go past 50 ft lbs?

Hello Rusty,

Is your torque wrench a click type or a sweep pointer type ? If it's a click type, do you back of the setting before putting it away ? If not, this will stress the mechanism inside causing it to go out of calibration.

Depending if you're using an extension, it's size (3/8 in. drive / or 1/2 in. drive) and length (6in. / or 12 in.) will affect the torque at the nut.

Do you have access to another torque wrench??

A few things to consider.

Hi Dave,

You make good points.

I always store my click type torque wrenches at the minimum setting. I also will "exercise" a clicker wrench at a low setting before the final setting if I have not used it for a couple of weeks.

I agree that a long extension puts some error into the process. I was using a regular 6 point socket with a 6" long 1/2" drive extension

I periodically check my clicker wrench against my beam wrench. It is hard to mess up the calibration on them!

It was my beam wrench that showed a possible problem. After I got to 50+ ft.lbs. I could turn the nut at least an 1/8 of a turn with no increase in the torque reading. I quit after that because I did not care to twist off the stud.

Now that I think about it there are a couple of areas to check. I need to confirm that the joint is ok. By that I mean to check to see that there is not nothing that keeps the wheel from sitting flat against the hub and that the lug nut seat areas are clean and smooth. Plus I want to measure the length of the stud to see if it is much longer than the others. That would indicate it has stretched.

I do not know if wheel studs were heat treated in 1937.

Rusty

I would not take wheel lugs beyond 50ftlb as some manufacturers are recommending 40-45ftlb.
Tony

FWIW I've never used a torque wrench on lug nuts and never had one come loose.

Same here....I only use a torque wrench on critical engine & suspension parts AND when the manual is very specific about it (my motorcycle is a good example...just about every bolt has a torque spec). Nuts & bolts that will be coming off occasionally will be tightened to a point where I can take 'em back off without too much effort.

The local tire shops in town all follow the same rule: Tighten all lug nuts to 80 ft/lb. They are on so tight I have to use a breaker bar with a pipe for added leverage just to get the bolt to move.

I have to loosen them every time I get home. They do it for liability reasons....it is better to leave a driver stranded on the side of the road than to have a wheel come off at speed.

Charlie wrote a post somewhere else about using a torque wrench, he might respond to this...

p.s. When I was in college, my mech professor, a retired automotive mechanical engineer, explained the axle hub's function in detail, which blew me away: The main purpose of the lug nuts & bolts is to stop wheel rotation. They don't distribute the weight of the hub & wheel, the hub is designed to do that. That's why it is very important that the wheel's center hole must fit snugly over the hub with no gaps whatsoever.

Using a wheel with a larger hole than the hub will put the strain on the lug bolts, and true balance will be difficult to achieve. Just about everyone I know that has incorrectly-sized aftermarket wheels complains about the balancing varying...the tire shops say the wheels are perfectly balanced but cannot explain the shimmy at highway speeds. Adding spacers may or may not help.

Notice some "rice rockets" kids drive around with rims that stick way out of the fenders? That is a good example of what NOT to do....moving the wheel's center of gravity outwards of the hub will put a LOT of strain on the lug bolts, wheel bearings, etc.

Hi Guys,

Sorry for letting this post go of topic to become a dissertation on torque wrenches. I'll start a new post to ask if anyone can answer my questions about replacing wheel studs.

Thanks