nuts

Hi Barry

Wheel nuts, torque wrenches, lubing wheel nuts etc is getting a good going over at thread 109633

Hi Barry,
They are a good idea as many people do tend to over tighten wheel nuts especially using rattle guns. I remember once an elderly couple stopped me to help them undo the nuts on an old Ford, luckily I had a short length of pipe in the service ute as I even had trouble. I took the time to loosen and re torque all their wheels and told them to get have them crack tested.
Ian

Yes we use then, we always use the one under the torque setting we want and follow through with a torque wrench for the final check...... But you can just use the torque tube/extension as the final setting if you want.

Bear in mind the have a limited usage as in the number of times you can use them before replacement.

Yes, I always carry and use a torque wrench.
Pro is that the wheel nuts are tightened to specification. No overtightened studs, no loose wheel nuts.
Cons? Can't see any other than cost of the wrench.

As a now retired mechanic I have an aversion to relying on anything other than a proper torque wrench or experience acquired over many years to tighten any nuts or bolts.
The inaccuracy possible when using any electric or air powered "rattle" gun leaves the possibility of over or under torqueing.
A thread picking up or binding can be picked up when hand tightening. Not so when using rattle guns of any persuasion.
IMHO rattle guns are fine for removing. Not so for tightening.

Cheers
Pop

I have a strong aversion to rattle guns of any sort other than for UNdoing things. To do up my wheels nuts I carry a cheap torque wrench of the type that just has a pointer and relies on the flex of the arm to move the scale. I 'calibrate' it against my quality torque wrench at home. I consider that it is robust and allows me to set within less than 10% of the correct value without a problem.

I get many comments from people at the tyre places when I ask them to not use a rattle gun to do up the nuts and I will torque them up myself. Most of them refuse to alter the setting to 'soft' and just spin them to the first rattle. The tyre place I use most is happy to do it my way and hence gets my regular business.

I had an early experience when a tyre place over tightened the wheels nuts on my Nissan G60 and I had several break whilst in the High Country. I replaced all the studs as they were stretched and damaged. Never again since them.

Hi Barry,

It seems that no one has answered your question.

I have torque sticks of the ratings required by my LC100 with steel wheels and for my Ultimate Off Road camping trailer. I have compared the torque sticks with my torque wrench and found them to be relatively accurate. I remove the torque stick when I am un-doing the wheel nuts.

They make it very easy to do a quick check of your wheel nuts and to make sure that the nuts are not coming loose. I have a Makita DTW450 Impact Wrench with a maximum tightening torque of 440nm. I also have the smaller Makita Impact Wrench.

Although the larger impact wrench sounds like overkill, I have had difficulty using the smaller unit in undoing nuts that have been over tightened with rattle guns. I also use the larger unit for checking my towball nut torque which requires exactly 440nm torque.

I had the wheels on my 4wd balanced and rotated this afternoon at a local tyre shop, the wheel nuts were put on with a rattle gun and at the end the guy went around and did the last bit up with a torque wrench. Some nuts were already tight enough, but there was a few i watched him nip up until it clicked at the allocated setting.

I haven't used one for centuries. Another unnecessary weight to carry.

I meant 450 not 430.