wellnut torque

fasteddieyj said:

I've got a few wellnuts that have partially pulled out of the roof on my 88 and picked up the replacements this morning. Got hem for 80 cents a piece at the local Carquest, compared to the $7.42 a pc I got quoted at the local stealership. I looked at some thread the other day about them and one mentioned the torque for them but I can't find it now. I believe it said 6-8 ft/lbs. Can anyone confirm this or if not tell me what the appropriate torque is. TIA

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5-90 said:

6-8 pound-feet (72-96 pound-inches) is the spec I use for 1/4" well nuts, so that probably came from me.

Don't forget to apply light-bodied silicone sealer (I used Auto Glass Sealer) to both the screw threads and the OD of the well nut under the flange.

Oh - and the OEM screws will not work with aftermarket wellnuts - it's some whack-assed thread that is more like an auger than a screw. Get flat head machine screws as well, in brass or CRES (rust blows.)

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fasteddieyj said:

Thanks man. Yeah I think it was a post that you had that I got that from.
As for the OEM screws not working I'm a little confused. The screws appear to be standard machine screws and the well nuts I got are 6mm. I screwed them together and they seem to go together as I would expect. Can you enlighten me a little more on why I shouldn't use them. Not saying your wrong, I'd just like a little more info. Thanks.

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5-90 said:

Ah. You probably got different screws than I saw, then.

The screws I'd removed when I'd peeled my OEM roof rack off (just used 1/4"-20 brass pan heads and well nuts to plug the holes) were some funky high helix angle thread - the helix angle looked to be 25-30*!

If you've screwed M6-1.0 screws into the well nuts and it worked, forget what I said. My parts probably came from a different bin. I'd pulled one screw, looked at it, then threw it away (knowing I'd not have been able to use it anywhere else at all!)

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