What's new

Swollen Lug Nuts is a thing?!?!

dodge-pickup-1953-13.jpg



During high school I drove a 1953 Dodge truck that looked similar to this but not as nice. Got a flat and went to loosen the lugs. On Chrysler products during those years the threads were reversed. So to loosen was the opposite as you would think. I am heaving with all my might to loosen the lugs and am actually tightening them. To make it worse, the lug would budge just a bit and my thought is, "Ah, finally it is starting to loosen up..." :blink:

The reason they were reverse threaded is a good example of over engineering. The engineers feared that the spinning of the tires would loosen the lugs. So they were reverse threaded so that as the tires spun they would tighten the nuts. And yes, at some point Chrysler looked around and noticed that Ford and GM products did not have wheels spinning off into the ditches.
 
Last edited:
I don’t know what standard procedure is in the average tyre shop in the US but the trick is to use the correct size socket and then, rather than air gun them to death do them to a point and hand tighten with a torque wrench to the correct number.

For the life of me I can’t understand why people feel the need to almost friction weld the lugs to the wheel!
Lugnut torque was 100 foot pounds on the F-150, and Explorer. I seated them with the impact and then hand torqued them with a calibrated torque wrench.

Clayton

Sent from my SM-A705U using Tapatalk
 
Every Ford I ever owned had those lug nuts. My Ram did too. I always replace them with solid lug nuts. Sometimes I even replace them before I have to swear at them. They can go for 9 years without an issue and poof, after another 3 months, they swell terribly. Usually a good size hammer will pound the 4 way or a socket on good enough to get it off.

You have got to buy pretty expensive solid nuts if you don’t want them to rust easily...
 

Chef455

Head Cheese Head Chef
I had no idea where to post a smile and a thank you to whoever honored me with my new, whatever it's called, subtext for my handle/avatar. I figure the post from where it originated was appropriate.

:thumbup: Thank You.
 

Kentos

B&B's Dr. Doolittle.
Staff member
I had no idea where to post a smile and a thank you to whoever honored me with my new, whatever it's called, subtext for my handle/avatar. I figure the post from where it originated was appropriate.

:thumbup: Thank You.

Great custom title!
 

Chandu

I Waxed The Badger.
Turns out that Ford in their infinite wisdom have a chrome or cover on the steel of many of the nuts which can swell. My vehicle is only a few years old. Needless to say there are now new nuts all the way around that are single piece solid steel.
I'll bet it was customers infinite wisdom of having "shiny" that drove Ford to take the steps they did. My guess is folks that never changed a tire in their life we're the bulk of the demand for "shiny".
 

shavefan

I’m not a fan
Shiny chrome is nothing new in the automotive design world. My guess is that it was probably some accountant (that never changed a tire :001_unsur) that pushed for a cheaper alternative to solid chrome lug nuts.
 
Those lugnuts and wheels were special, just couldn't replace them with any old lugnut we had in the tire store. I don't remember if we could order them through aftermarket suppliers, or if we had to get them through the local Ford dealer.

Clayton

Sent from my SM-A705U using Tapatalk
 
Yes, the lug nuts on my Super Duty are different that most nuts. They have a flat seating surface compared to the cone seating surface of many other lug nuts.
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
View attachment 1209798


During high school I drove a 1953 Dodge truck that looked similar to this but not as nice. Got a flat and went to loosen the lugs. On Chrysler products during those years the threads were reversed. So to loosen was the opposite as you would think. I am heaving with all my might to loosen the lugs and am actually tightening them. To make it worse, the lug would budge just a bit and my thought is, "Ah, finally it is starting to loosen up..." :blink:

The reason they were reverse threaded is a good example of over engineering. The engineers feared that the spinning of the tires would loosen the lugs. So they were reverse threaded so that as the tires spun they would tighten the nuts. And yes, at some point Chrysler looked around and noticed that Ford and GM products did not have wheels spinning off into the ditches.
Actually, only one side of the vehicle used reversed thread lug nuts.
 
Actually, only one side of the vehicle used reversed thread lug nuts.

Yes, I stand corrected. Now that you mentioned it that is exactly how I remember it. This explains why it was so confusing for a high school kid. Chrysler engineers figured the lugs would only spin off on one side of the vehicle and not the other. So they reverse threaded only the one side. Sigh...

I had some practice with changing those tires - does anyone else remember bias ply tires?

Got rear ended once by a VW Bug. He broke the red lens on my tail light which cost $0.75 to replace. Being a Bug he went under the rear somewhat so the impact put a crease across his entire front end to the tune of $800.00 which was a lot back then.
 
Last edited:

KeenDogg

Slays On Fleek - For Rizz
I had no idea where to post a smile and a thank you to whoever honored me with my new, whatever it's called, subtext for my handle/avatar. I figure the post from where it originated was appropriate.

:thumbup: Thank You.
Its a great one, IMO. Look what they stuck me with. 🤣
 
Top Bottom