Thread: Lost a wheel

It's no comfort I know, but I carry a torque wrench and breaker bar in the car. Any time a wheel comes off the first thing I do before I leave the car park is break the nuts loose and torque them up. My experience with anyone who has touched my cars, from the corner tyre place through to mechanics who just should know better, is they either under or over tighten. Mostly over.

I think this is the first time I have had "under", but I recall one (fortunately at home) where I actually broke my 1/2" breaker bar trying to loosed the nuts on one wheel. Borrowed a 3/4" drive set of sockets from next door to get them undone.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I think this is the first time I have had "under", but I recall one (fortunately at home) where I actually broke my 1/2" breaker bar trying to loosed the nuts on one wheel. Borrowed a 3/4" drive set of sockets from next door to get them undone.

Let me know if you need nuts, I have plenty of secondhand ones.

Colin

With 5-stud wheels, remove one nut from each of the other wheels and one from the spare (on a Defender) and you have 4 nuts to get you home. Been there, done that.

Yeah, I destroyed 2 wheel braces and an impact socket trying to get them off at the local Tyrepower outlet. They were less than complimentary about my service prowess until I pulled out the receipt that showed they were the last place to work on that wheel and I was in hurry so didn't re-torque it in their car park.

They assured me they use a torque wrench to do them up, but I snuck around the corner to watch and saw them put the nuts back on with a 3/4 pneumatic rattle gun. I'm nearly 95kg and had to bounce up and down on a 600mm breaker bar just to crack them loose.

At home I have 2 rattle guns. A cheap "big one" for removing nuts and a more expensive small one turned down to "give it a tickle" for putting them on. I then follow up with the torque wrench,

Thanks to both Colin and Ron.

I also have plenty of second hand nut, and have replaced my borrowed nuts with them - and I will be returning to my friend a set of new nuts from my parts store tomorrow when I get into town (actually only four, as I found one nut so only needed four. All five nuts are a bit worn on the taper as it turns out that due to the damaged thread, the nuts were not tightened properly onto the wheel. (Now tight using liberal lubrication and a breaker bar.)

And I am aware of Ron's suggestion - on several occasions used a variation of it with my Series 1 and II and IIA sixty years or more ago, and also on various other vehicles.

I have now had the wheel off in the workshop, and have fitted the new S/H nuts. The thread on the inner few turns of the suds is a bit damaged, and I will see if I can find a suitable die nut to clean them up in town tomorrow.

I have straightened the disc protector plate. The disc itself has a small flat on its edge where I braked. It does not extend to the braking area and I doubt it will significantly affect balance.

An interesting feature of the incident is that there was no loss of control. The track of the disk in the dirt is dead straight. I was traveling about 60kph.

I should also point out that it turns out that returning home (15km) rather than into town and back home (over 100km round trip) was definitely the right thing due to thread damage preventing proper tightening with tools on hand.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Now tight using liberal lubrication and a breaker bar.

My Father-in-law wasn't a fan of lubricating wheel nuts, he claimed it made them come undone easier. His theory was that if it ever came loose it would vibrate off quickly if lubricated.

I use graphite powder which at least doesn't attract dirt when you drop them !

I was doing some work with a company manufacturing grease and came away with a tub of graphite powder (and molybdenum disulfide) for testing so plenty in-stock.


Colin

I use anti seize stuff on wheel studs. But more important than lubrication on the thread is lubrication on the shoulder that holds the wheel, so that when the wheel moves slightly, it does not turn the nut. On the threads, it is mainly to prevent the nut rusting on, something I have often encountered with Series 1/2/2a wheel studs - which then screw out of the hub, damaging the thread in the hub, due to the staking of the stud on the inside to prevent this.

In this case it was especially to prevent the nut thread from pressure welding onto the damaged thread of the stud as I forced the nut to tighten against the wheel.