Thread: I really hate being overtaken........

Originally Posted by BMKal

Valiants had this feature for many years. Don't know if it was on all of their models, but suspect that it may have been.

Lost count of the number of times that I've seen people struggling with a wheel brace trying to loosen the wheel nuts on the left side of a Valiant when they were really tightening them.

I've seen more than one person snap studs off using a "cheater" bar.

I had a 50's Fargo Ute that had Lt hand studs on the one side. I think it use to be a fairly common practice in the 50's to have left handed threads on the one side.

I have had a trailer tire explode in front of me while riding the motorcycle once - had to dodge flying bits of rubber, that was bad enough. Would hate to see a high speed tyre and rim coming my way.

Originally Posted by BMKal

Valiants had this feature for many years....
I've seen more than one person snap studs off using a "cheater" bar.

Maybe you spotted my brother's AP6 stud snapping incident prior to him realising the reason. 1...2...3 ???

Trucks and buses had left hand and right handed wheel nuts if on an American or Japanese chassis and drive line, whereas European vehicles were generally right handed all round.
Usually the wheels were supported by the "handed' wheel nuts whereas with the European pattern wheel, the wheel was supported by the hub.
Early Mitsubishi mid size trucks had a habit of self over tightening the wheel nuts whilst moving along and sometimes doing so to the extent that the studs would snap.
In your case the first question I would ask is, have the wheels been changed/ rotated recently?
The second question would be, when were the wheel nuts checked last?
We once lost a set of drive wheels (duals) off the rear of a Mercedes Benz tourist coach at 100kph on a trip up near Rocky.
The left hand drive wheels came off, climbed a siding cutaway, cleared the coach and one of these wheels ran along the road (1125-20s) and collided with an oncoming car crashing into the driver's side passengers door, completely wrecking one side of the back seat before coming to rest out in the paddock against a mangled wire fence.
There were two little tackers in the back seat of this car, and as luck would have it, both were out of their seat belts and leaning over the back of the left hand front seat pestering Mum for something as Kids are wont to do and this act saved their lives that day. Anyway, back to the gist of the story; after months of investigations by insurance Companies, Police and Transport Department investigators, it was put down to mis adventure - which left a highly suspicious and nasty taste in our mouths until eventually we discovered that the bloke driving that day (who happened to own his own coach) at lunch time was conscientious enough to get the wheel spanner out and "crack" each wheel nut to ensure their tightness. (A daily occurrence in the trade.) The unfortunate side to the story was that he owned a coach with an American drive-line and as a result, cracked the right side nuts the correct way and unknowingly actually loosened the left hand nuts.
The whole story has a bright side if you can call it that, in that no one person at all was injured in the whole episode, the car involved was written off and replaced by the insurance company, the damage the wheel did after it had come off was covered by my Insurance but I was left with the bill for the damage caused to my vehicle as it came off (roughly $12000). An interesting sideline to this whole sorry (and frightening) affair was that none of the 42 passengers nor the driver knew that the wheels had come off straight away as the air bag suspension compensated for the drop and the coach was still riding straight and level, but after a second or two the driver realised why he had suddenly lost drive and was informed of what had actually happened on the radio by the driver following him.
I suppose the moral of the story is to investigate every single possibility before pointing a finger, and I commiserate with you having had it happen to me.
Regards
Glen

These things don't look so silly now


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Originally Posted by sheerluck

......by bits of the car I'm driving.

I looked in the passenger mirror to see the rear wheel bounce off streak past me and land in a thicket of trees and undergrowth a little way up the road.

Been there - done that







I found two of the nuts 100m back up the road and the little wheel spacer that my little truck has (OEM fit not aftermarket).

Was able to drive home.

Garry

Hi

Now I don't feel so anal about pulling out the torque wrench every time I do anything to the wheels

Steve

I gotta admit, the tin hub caps on my old Fiat 850 Sport made good indicators for loose wheel bolts. The rattly noise was a dead giveaway AND the bolt was still there ready for refitment!

Many years ago my older son, first car, VW Beetle, had one rear wheel come off - not wheel studs, but, the brakes having just been done, the nut holding the hub/brake_drum on came off, leaving him with no brakes (single circuit brakes, one panicked pump blew the wheel cylinder, equalising mechanism ensured the handbrake did not work. He was very lucky, and, in fact the only damage was to the brake and backing plate.

There was no way that nut had a split pin in it! Garage was not very cooperative, I can't remember (about 25 years ago) what eventually happened, but I think we eventually gave up and paid for repairs.

John