!%@#^&%@ Lost a wheel today

Not bad. I do enjoy shopping at Amazon because I have a store card with them. No interest for 6mos on anything over $100. Good link.

Tim, agreed with your post!

I got my snap-on torque wrenches used on Ebay for no more than $80 apiece shipped. For some reason they sold significantly cheaper mid-week than on the weekends.

B-body and most GM lug nuts are 19mm.

I use a 3/4 inch socket for my lug nuts. I have a 1/2 inch torque wrench from HF...it cost me $10 on special. Check their flyer. For the amount you are going to use it, and the accuracy you need, it should work. I do not use the torque wrench, I just use my weight on a long breaker bar. I know if I put it on, I can get it off, and I can calibrate the weight by pushing on a scale to get the "feel" for it. Just a little shade tree rule of thumb.

Wow... lube on threads, anti-seize, wrong size sockets, torquing by guessing... this thread has it all!

Ray, drop by Harbor Freight and so some shopping. If you are going to work on cars, you need the tools to do it. I would start with the big electric impact and a set of 1/2 drive deep sockets for doing wheels. You will never touch that jack wrench again.

I have an electric impact wrench from HF. You do not want to put your wheels on tight with it, there is no adjustment for maximum torque. You can not "feel it". It will snap the studs.

BTW, I have never had a wheel come loose (or even one nut), damaged a nut, or broken a stud, and I can always get them off when I need to.

i,ve been putting on wheels for a few years,. and way back when,. nobody used a torque wrench, you put the wheel on , the threads had a lttle oil on them or a dab of wheel bearing grease,. and you tightened them down crossways in a star fashion(my dads' words) and tightened them evenly,sometimes with the lug wrench, sometimes with the new fangled 4 way wheel wrench,. sometimes with an impact gun,. sometimes with a johnson bar an extensions and a socket,.and you didn't ask the neighbours or any one else how to do it either, youjust did it it was something a man was supposed to know how to do,. . then you gave the lugs all a little extra for good measure, and they stayed on with no drama,. no special instructions or technical discussion,. just a damn wheel bolted on the damn car, and i still do the same thing today,.


Nick,
wondering how many more pages of endless diatribe about putting on a wheel will get written,.,.

nuf said.

+1and I often wonder how I and my close friends lived thru our youth,working under our cars
with no jackstands and in complete ignorance of the proper procedure!
Jim

phantom 309 wrote:

i,ve been putting on wheels for a few years,. and way back when,. nobody used a torque wrench, you put the wheel on , the threads had a lttle oil on them or a dab of wheel bearing grease,. and you tightened them down crossways in a star fashion(my dads' words) and tightened them evenly,sometimes with the lug wrench, sometimes with the new fangled 4 way wheel wrench,. sometimes with an impact gun,. sometimes with a johnson bar an extensions and a socket,.and you didn't ask the neighbours or any one else how to do it either, youjust did it it was something a man was supposed to know how to do,. . then you gave the lugs all a little extra for good measure, and they stayed on with no drama,. no special instructions or technical discussion,. just a damn wheel bolted on the damn car, and i still do the same thing today,.


Nick,
wondering how many more pages of endless diatribe about putting on a wheel will get written,.,.

nuf said.

Best post in this thread, spot on too. People really do like to over think everything nowadays.

The 4 way lug wrench was the best. If the lugs were too tight we grabbed a block to hold it up while we stood on it. Still do that with the rigs if no compressor is available.