Longer wheel studs

[spandit]

After suffering the near loss of my front driver's wheel when all the nuts came loose, I was thinking about fitting longer studs. I know they're M14x1.5, but how long are they and are studs generally a standard fit

e.g. http://merlinmotorsport.co.uk/product_i ... ts_id=1085

Would threadlock help or should I get the nuts drilled for locking wire?

[audiocontr]

Interesting. Im curious on the replies.

From what I know, its important to torque the nuts to the right specs as they center the wheel. I believe its 110lbs/ft. I cant imagine that amount of force working its way loose.

[undysworld]

FWIW, I've never heard of anyone needing to modify things. They seem pretty well designed in their stock configuration.

My guess is that something else was to blame, such as the nuts not being tight enough. If they weren't fully tightened after some service, such as brake work, they may have loosened up. After having a wheel off, I always drive a few miles and recheck tightness. I'd check for damage, and replace any bad parts with original, and leave it be.

[wrangler0511]

One important thing is to retorque them after the first few miles.
And then recheck them regularly.
There were many accidents due to loosened Wheel nuts in
the Austrian army. This was the main reason why SDP changed
the torque specs for the wheel nuts over the time.

The proper torque now is 200 NM. This would translate to 147 lbs/ft.

Richard

[spandit]

Ah, perhaps I used the old torque - will ramp it up a bit!

[Twin Pinzies]

When you climbed into the truck by climbing over the front wheel, you didn't notice a bunch of loose/missing lugnuts?!

[Thomas-E]

Just a suggestion...
When putting on lug-nuts run them on just finger tight and then work a cross-over pattern. Start at top and snug it down a bit, then go to the second lug down on either side and snug it down, then go to the first lug down on the opposing side and snug it down and finally go across to the first lug down on the other side and snug it. this should center the wheel and the lug-nuts.

Now... do this pattern again torquing to the final spec. You should be good to go. After a few miles I would again check the torque one last time.

Good Luck

[spandit]

TwinPinzies - no, I didn't notice they were loose - didn't think it would be a problem until the wheel started wobbling after about 40 road miles.

I know how to put nuts back on and had torqued them to 100nm, which I thought was the correct setting - I'll know to do them tighter from now on!

[Erik712m]

A side note the guys that replace there rims with Aluminum have to or at least should get longer studs.

[Twin Pinzies]

This might be obvious but is everyone remembering to torque your lug nuts while the tire is off the ground?
Torquing the lug nuts when the truck is sitting on the ground will result in faulty torque specks.

[spandit]

Correctly torqued now. Just remeasured my wheels and the PCD is 160mm - haven't actually seen this number featured on the forum

[Q]

since no one else already mentioned it...
i can't find it, but it has been mentioned on the forum (by dennis linden i think?):
do not grease the contact surfaces of the nut and wheel, and
make sure there is no paint on those surfaces.

[edzz]

If lug nuts are not greased correct torque will not be applied. If no grease is applied likelihood of nuts “freezing“ on studs also greatly increases. The manuals call for the nuts to be greased. As has been previously mentioned and is described in the manual, when changing wheels engage all lockers, remove and replace wheel and torque lug nuts with wheel off ground. Concerning painted wheels, if wheels are newly painted you may need to check wheel torque a number of times (over a period of days / weeks) until paint has become fully compressed and the thickness has been stabilized.

Ed

[Q]

greasing the contact surfaces of the nuts is news to me, i've always been careful not to get any grease on there when greasing the threads.

sorry about that, and apologies to dennis for any misquotes (if the post was even his- i can't remember).

[spandit]

I found trying to torque them without grease on the contact surfaces made some very unpleasant noises - could also lead to corrosion problems which would mean the undoing torque was even higher which might snap a stud. They're only 14mm studs and I've snapped M16 bolts on the Land Rover before now