WTF is going on here.....wheel came loose AGAIN!

Ok, yesterday I had my wheel almost come off and had to get it towed home. I replaced the lugs and studs with brand new hardware, torqued everything to 100 ft/lbs and figured all was well and good. I drove to work this morning and all was fine(my commute is 7 miles). I drove the Jeep a little around the site in the morning, and then on my way to lunch I hear an awful racket again. Get out to check, and sure enough the lugs are only hand tight(All 5 were loose).

I'm at a loss. This isn't happening with any of the other wheels, and they all have the exact same lugs and studs. Any insight would be helpful!

Ary

I just had the same thing happen two weeks ago my solution was to not drive it. I am thinking it might be an out of balance tire on mine that is vibrating them loose

all 5? I thought you were running Toy and Chevy 6 lug :laugh3:

wow, that sucks, I don't know but an out of balance tire seems like it could do it. was it the same tire both times? try rotating your tires and see if it happens again and where...

Didn't you say something the first time about the holes being wallowed a bit? If the studs aren't seating correctly because of wallowed holes that could contribute to your problems. Then again, do you have any angry co-workers or spiteful X's??

Yucca-Man said:

Didn't you say something the first time about the holes being wallowed a bit? If the studs aren't seating correctly because of wallowed holes that could contribute to your problems. Then again, do you have any angry co-workers or spiteful X's??

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I was thinking the same thing. SABOTAGE! It could be the taliban or the al queda! No more car bombs, now they want tires to fall off! Maybe it was them who did the whole Explorer firestone thing?

BrettM said:

all 5? I thought you were running Toy and Chevy 6 lug :laugh3:

wow, that sucks, I don't know but an out of balance tire seems like it could do it. was it the same tire both times? try rotating your tires and see if it happens again and where...

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Brett, I had the Toy shafts redrilled to 5x5.5 'cause I already had the front axle together and done with Ford stuff. In hindsight I would have converted the front over to 6x5.5 using Chevy stuff. Live and learn.

Yes it was the same tire both times, and no nobody is trying to get me. I could understand if the holes being wallowed out was keeping the nut from getting tight, but when I torqued them to 100 ft/lbs yesterday I made sure they weren't spinning in place. They're also not wallowed out to the point of the studs just falling out. They're just not as much of a press-fit as say a factory stud.

Ary

the new studs may have a little stretch in them.

Ary, its just a thought, but is it possible that the redrilled holes are not perfectly centered? If any of the lug holes are off from center or each other even a tiny amount, it could result in the wheel not sitting flush against the rotor, and causing vibration, which in turn could work the lugs loose. Did that make any sense? Like i said, just a thought.
Buck :canada:

Stupid question. When you drilled the new pattern which studs did you use? Didn't happen to be the stock toys again?

Also 100 sound pretty high to me. Check the length of the studs. I seen them stretch and break but have heard of them just stretching some. Woudn't take much and your wheel would be loose.

Thought it was supposed to be 75ft/lbs. Hmm, maybe I was wrong.

Ary,

Make sure you are tightening the wheel and not just the lug on to the studs.

We had this happen once but it was on steel wheels. The lugs would torque but the wheel wasn't tight.

Maybe your studs are too long and that is what is happening.

mark

Big DaveXJ said:

Thought it was supposed to be 75ft/lbs. Hmm, maybe I was wrong.

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There's a change-over somewhere around late 80s early 90s if I'm not mistaken. Was 75, then changed to 95-100, at least that's what the "giant torque chart for nearly every vehicle known to man" says on the wall in my tire center.

Mark Hinkley said:

Ary,

Make sure you are tightening the wheel and not just the lug on to the studs.

We had this happen once but it was on steel wheels. The lugs would torque but the wheel wasn't tight.

Maybe your studs are too long and that is what is happening.

mark

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The studs definately aren't too long. If anything they could be longer. I'm getting about 5/8" of thread engagement on the studs. I've always been told that you want at least the diameter of the bolt in thread engagement to have a secure connection. Since they're 1/2-20 studs, I figured this was fine. The nuts are also not bottoming out on the studs as there is still plenty of threads left "inside" the wheel.

As for re-using the studs, no I had the machine shop install new 1/2-20 studs when they did the shafts, and I re-installed new studs after yesterday's incident(see "how to check axle flange for true" thread for more details on that).

I think what may have happened is that the wheel may not have been fully seated on the flange/rotor and it settled and loosened up. I doubt it, since when I jacked it up and let the tires spin, there was no percievable wobble in the wheel, but I suppose anything is possible. I will just keep an eye on the damn things and see what happens. Fortunately I only commute 7 miles, so I can check them at home, when I get to work, when I get home again, and so on. We'll see if they come loose yet again. If they do, I'm getting new shafts and starting over.

Maybe now is the time to get serious about purchasing a DD. :dunce:

Ary

gotta be that wussy 8" :looney:

I 'ease' my lugs on with an impact wrench, and have for 11 years.
I set the wrench at about 180 lbs., which is the 'low' setting on my air wrench.
Never had a problem, not once.
There are things to worry about on a Jeep, as far as torque goes, and lugs are not one of them.
Flame me if you like, but I have been wheeling nearly 12 years and I get it done, ask anyone.
As long as the lugs are not absurdely long, look somewhere else.
This has me confused.

SyCo said:

There's a change-over somewhere around late 80s early 90s if I'm not mistaken. Was 75, then changed to 95-100, at least that's what the "giant torque chart for nearly every vehicle known to man" says on the wall in my tire center.

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FSM for my '91 has the torque at 83ft lbs.

XJ91 said:

FSM for my '91 has the torque at 83ft lbs.

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That torque setting is for stereo knobs.

Gorrilla gun or go home.

bgcntry72 said:

I 'ease' my lugs on with an impact wrench, and have for 11 years.
I set the wrench at about 180 lbs., which is the 'low' setting on my air wrench.
Never had a problem, not once.
There are things to worry about on a Jeep, as far as torque goes, and lugs are not one of them.
Flame me if you like, but I have been wheeling nearly 12 years and I get it done, ask anyone.
As long as the lugs are not absurdely long, look somewhere else.
This has me confused.

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I used to just thread them by hand and then gun them on. However everyone always gave me hell for it, so I started using a torque wrench. Today I gunned them on and just held the gun until they stopped turning any further. It's an electric impact and it was running on a half-battery, so I'm not worried about it breaking the studs. I then put a regular lug wrench on the lugs and couldn't get them any tighter(I carry the impact with me in case you're wondering how I'm gonna get them off in the event of a flat tire ). I guess we'll see.

It has me confused as well.

Ary

I didn;t catch if these are steel wheels or not. If they are steel, the tapered flange area in the wheel was most likely "wallowed" out and either the lug nuts are now pulling further through the wheel and bottoming on the axle, or they simply don't sit flush on the entire surface of the wheel. I've ruined more than one wheel that way. In order to get home, I filed the end of the lug nuts at the small end of the taper to allow them to pull further in without bottoming. It's a hack job but when $$$ are short, you do what you have to do. That is the way my trail spare rim is. I just keep a seperate set of nuts for that wheel.

In his last thread he said they were aluminum.