Check your LUG NUTS!!!!!!!!!

[69MyWay]

My buddy Kurt and I are just finishing the freak mode work on this 81 Vette.

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/Flare_Install.html

He decided to take it to his dad's house for father's day just short of wrapping up the trim work and interior install. Can you blame him? The car looks HOT! Who would have ever thought a 81 Vette could look this wicked?

Anyway, we don't know how, but the left rear wheel did not get torqued (or at least we assume). On his way back he lost the wheel on the road!

Don't know if he wants me posting pics of it just yet but last night we took some time to survey the damage. The left quarter is more or less ripped loose from the inner body, door jam is torn free from the body/rocker, and the rear bumper is split. his new VB&P performance plus suspension is ground down smooth on the left side and the upper quarter around the power interior is fractured in multiple places. The rims is destroyed.

I have a plan to get him back on top, but it is going to take some elbow grease and some late nights.

Just remember...check your lug nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[6 Shooter]

Bummer - I can't imagine how bad/sick he felt about the damage.

It certainly is 1 Awesome Looking 81.

Later . . . . . .
6 Shooter

 

[vmrod]

Last weekend, I was one lug nut (with 2 threads) away from loosing my front driver's wheel!
I thought hard about why this had happened, then I remembered that one day, I was polishing my rim. I had removed the lug nuts one at a time to make polishing easier. Apparently, I never put them one tight enough!
I would have been sooooo ****ed!

 

[geekinavette]

Man that really stinks...big time. :cry

Anytime the wheels are off the lugs should be checked a couple of times after a few miles here and there. I've had 'em come loose even after being torqued...it CAN happen!

Bill

 

[goertz]

wow, what a shame. I have to apologize for my thoughts though. I was scrolling through your pictures, and saw the beginning stages of the flare installation. As i'm looking at this, i'm thinking "jesus christ, WTF? there goes another vette." then I saw the finished pictures, and slapped myself for thinking such nonsense. it really looks great! Big improvement!

 

[goertz]

this actually almost happened to me on a 1995 impala i had. at 55 the car would shimmy like no tomorrow. i figured out of balance tire. it had 20's on it. well, my lazy ass didn't do anything about it for a few months, and the car needed brakes. so I jacked the car up, pulled the center cap off, and the wheel came off in my hand. 3 studs were broken, and the other two were totally worn, no threads left at all from the wheel flopping around in there, and all 5 lugs were sitting in the center cap. nice huh!

 

[pasvorto1]

I had the left rear wheel of a FIAT X1/9 pass me one day. Not fun.

 

[RodsnRides]

Wow. Nice ride. So sorry to read about the damage from the wheel.

I can only suggest that all aluminum wheels tend to flex or breathe, if you will. My Dad had an F-150 drop a wheel-just after he felt the shimmy and pulled over. 3 busted studs and the rest were shot.

One of my El Caminos was the victim of using mag wheel lug nuts on a factory steel wheel ('69-'70 SS wheel). It looked like a mag to the parts guy. Big damage to the 1/4 panel, but no other dramas.

HIGHLY suggest regularly checking nut/bolt torque on aluminum rims. And, if you are in there cleaning up, put a wrench to 'em first and then clean.

Rick

 

[randomize27]

Properly torqued, you should have no problem.

I will say this, though, watch your tire guy at rotations and replacements.

I've seen "mechics" at all levels screw up the simplest concept.

FOLLOW THE PATTERN.

For a five-bolt tire, you should move around the wheel in either direction, skipping one lug nut. This results in a 5-point-star pattern, (Like the Dallas Cowboy's logo.) as if you were to draw it without lifting your pencil/pen.

You should repeat the pattern with a properly set torque wrench (I think for Corvette it's 90 lb/ft), until all lug nuts don't move before the wrench clicks.

If the lug nut shifts even slightly before the click, go around again. And again.

As each lug nut tightens, it changes the stress pattern on the rim. To settle an argument, I tigtend the lugs on my own car by hand, and another guy used a torque wrench to tighten the lugs on the other side in a circle. (Not the star pattern.) ('91 Olds Cutlass Supreme - don't worry, would not use a 'Vette to settle THIS bet.) Then, our boss went around with a torque wrench, and slowly cranked it up until he could feel the lug nuts move.

The lugs on the other side, tightened with a properly set Torque wrench in a circle, 4/5 were actually tightend to less than 40 lb/ft.

4/5 of the hand tightend ones were at around 70 lb/ft.

Recommended for my car is 90 lb/ft.

I won the bet, and wound up doing all the tire rotations that came in from then on. Mixed blessing.

(I also went around and tightned my lugs myself before I took my car off the lift.)

Just some advice - take it with a salt lick.