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Lost Wheel at 70mph

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
wow.. sorry to hear that happened to you... but like fellro said... if the cocked any even the slightest bit itll suddenly come loose once it pops into a different angle.. ive had people tell me many times because its "torqued" it cant be anything but true on the axles... had one guy give me that line in the shop.. he didnt cross hatch the nuts when tightening down.. when i tried warning him about the wheel being cocked he didnt want to listen...

i got him to stop the lift just off the ground when he was putting it back on all the wheels... when i gave the tire a swift hard kick on the high side and it popped free sitting loose on the studs... after that he started tightening the nuts in a cross pattern.. told him if the tire had done that on the road and the nuts backed off whoever was in the car could have died... seemed to give him the "kick" in the pants he needed to get it right..

its a big reason ill go around 3 times to make sure everythings right when tightening the lug nuts..
 

Fellro

Moderator
Staff member
Just saw my typo saying 1000 miles... supposed to be 100, which I edited it to.

I have seen plenty of wheels cock, and if you just go around in a circle rather than continually crossing, then they stay cocked and will absolutely torque out fine, as the torque reading is simply effort applied. It can not determine if the wheel seated or not, only that you applied that much effort to turn the lug nut. It is no guarantee whatsoever that the rim is truly snug against the backing.
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
Just saw my typo saying 1000 miles... supposed to be 100, which I edited it to.

I have seen plenty of wheels cock, and if you just go around in a circle rather than continually crossing, then they stay cocked and will absolutely torque out fine, as the torque reading is simply effort applied. It can not determine if the wheel seated or not, only that you applied that much effort to turn the lug nut. It is no guarantee whatsoever that the rim is truly snug against the backing.

smilieIagree with smiliewhathesaid
 
Yes I have been doing wheels for 25 years and never had a problem. As soon as I decided to actually Torque them this happened. The wheel was on solid not cocked. I'm going back to old school arm torque which always worked for me thru many vehicles. Hell the lug nuts even say 150' lbs stamped on them.
 

CowboyBilly9Mile

Charter Member
7,118
442
USA
There's a short list of reasons I use a beam type torque wrench for some things, and one of them is lug nuts. On the other hand, even without looking at the wrench I've get a pretty good feel for getting the torque in the ballpark. At any rate, glad to hear nobody got hurt. And FWIW, not sure about your truck but I had a car that was absolutely intolerant of overtorquing the lug nuts, and no, the stud didn't break but you could feel it yield. Bad news waiting to happen, that stud material is no longer the same and it's time to replace.
 

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