Playing with your nuts

Drizit

TJ Addict
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Lug nuts you sickos! Get your mind out of the gutter.

So I was doing some winter changeovers and tire rotations on the home fleet today and it got me thinking about lugnut torque and how much of a pain it can be with different vehicles.

The question is how do you torque your nuts?

Myself I generally put them on with a torque stick and the gun to about 10-20ft/lbs lower than I plan to keep them at after hand starting of course. Then I drop the vehicle on the ground and finish them with a torque wrench. Generally I will go in the prescribed criss cross pattern until I stop getting movement then go around the circle to ensure I didn't get detracted and miss something.

For the 5 bolt axles (jeep and Mazda 3) doing the pattern once seems to get me the correct torque on all 5 nuts. However on the 4 bolt mini and 8 bolt dodge 2500, that doesn't work as well. For some reason on these I seem to have to repeat the pattern at least 2 or even 3 times before I stop getting movement on the nuts (bolts for the mini) now today was particularly bad as I couldn't find my torque sticks, and so just used the gun to snug the lugs down.

Now I don't apply lube to the threads but particularly on the Dodge I'm considering putting antiseize on the cone part of the nuts as there seems to be a reaction between the nut and the rim, the aluminum rim is corroding around the nuts and puffing up. Is that a big no no, or. Is it just the threads that matter?

After a couple hundred km I plan to of course recheck things, particularly the Dodge as it's such a pain about the lugs.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
Hand tighten first, crisscross pattern on ground, torqued to proper value, and I go around the vehicle twice to make sure I didn't miss one.
 
Good thing I rechecked the dodge, did a few hundred km and took the torque wrench with me. Almost every lug took an extra 1/8th to 1/4 turn, I think about 3 of the 32 nuts didn't move. Just goes to show how important it is to recheck after you drive a bit.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
I use a 100ftlb torque bar then I go over it by hand with a hand torque wrench
Okay, I can't take it anymore. I have always assumed a torque bar was just another name for a torque wrench. I thought maybe the difference was the difference between the old bar/needle type, and the more modern digital reading and/or click-type. But with this last post, I'm not so sure. Care to school me on this, Chief? I could Google it, but what the hell...I'm bored!
 
Guessing he means a torque limiting stick for an impact gun.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
Don't know what that is either...since I have been using a battery torque gun recently I need to get one?
Basically they are an extention that twists as a specific torque thus taking up the force of the hammer blow making it impossible for your impact gun to go above that level... In theory.

In practice you have to tune the gun to be accurate on the sticks you own. If not they can be over or under. An electric gun unfortunately can't be tuned so you have to exparement to find the stick that gives you the numbers you want. Your gun may need a 100 ft/lbs one to give you 80 dt/lbs or the other way around. The next pain is that electric guns are not consistent, battery level will make a difference for one. I find I use one about 20 ft/lbs lower than my target so I never go over then finish it with a torque wrench.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
Okay, I can't take it anymore. I have always assumed a torque bar was just another name for a torque wrench. I thought maybe the difference was the difference between the old bar/needle type, and the more modern digital reading and/or click-type. But with this last post, I'm not so sure. Care to school me on this, Chief? I could Google it, but what the hell...I'm bored!
Ya it is what they others have stated. They look like this.

main_torquebarex.jpg
 
Wow. I have never heard of any of that before. I guess being that I have never considered using an electric or pneumatic gun to tighten something that needed to be torqued, it stands to reason. Yes, I've used an air gun to do the initial run-in on the lug nuts before, but always stop at the point where they contact the rim. While I think these tools are pretty cool, after reading on the variables with the guns and what you have to do to compensate for them, I don't think it's worth the hassle, or that I'd trust 'em. I'll just stick with the old torque wrench, of which I have a few. Thanks for the education, guys! Much appreciated!
 
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Wow. I have never heard of any of that before. I guess being that I have never considered using an electric or pneumatic gun to tighten something that needed to be torqued, it stands to reason. Yes, I've used an air gun to do the initial run-in on the lug nuts before, but always stop at the point where they contact the rim. While I think these tools are pretty cool, after reading on the variables with the guns and what you have to do to compensate for them, I don't think it's worth the hassle, or that I'd trust 'em. I'll just stick with the old torque wrench, of which I have a few. Thanks for the education, guys! Much appreciated!
I normally trust them with no issues, but in my big garage at home It is powered by a huge extension cord so I am using a small compressor so I don't trust my compressor. That is why I use the torque bar then follow up with the wrench. If I had my electricity squared and my full sized compressor. I would trust my torque bars fully.
 
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I hand tighten on the ground in a 1,3,5,2,4 pattern, then torque the TJ to 95ft/lbs with a torque wrench following same pattern. Our Yukon is torqued to 150 if I remember. I use an extension on the torque wrench to tighten them down.

I carefully instruct tire shops to torque to 95 ft/lbs. They inevitably tell me that their specs say 110, but they agree to do 100. I also tell them 26psi. If they get these two things right it’s probably a good tire shop.
 
Where are they getting 110? Everything I've ever read is 95.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
Where are they getting 110? Everything I've ever read is 95.
I assumed they were being cautious, but that’s not how nuts and bolts work. :D