Minuit Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 I haven't driven my '91 in a while, so I decided to take it to the gym last night. On the way back I noticed a weird front-end shimmy it hasn't ever had before, and I decided to check it out this morning. As it turns out, my truck very nearly killed me last night: It seems like the lug nuts on the RF wheel somehow backed off and broke the studs when I started driving. One nut was holding the wheel on by the time I looked at it and it was loose. The last time the wheels were off this truck was about a year ago, when I had the new tires put on. Not long after that I re-torqued all 20 lug nuts. The truck drove absolutely fine until last night, and the 15 other lugnuts were perfectly tight. Moral of the story: check your lug nuts every now and then. I'm not the paranoid kind, but having all 5 lugs on one wheel suddenly get loose makes me just a tiny bit suspicious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 yeah, that's not a normal occurrence... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbyluvv Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 My CJ5 spit a wheel on me for no reason. I have never lost a wheel before and luckily for me I was in the dirt when it came off. Glad you caught it before it got worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 I've lost one before. It's not cool. Do your retorques 50-100 miles after install, and retorque as part of your oil change/PMI/service... With adapters I retorque them every time a wheel comes off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 ... had to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 I had one wheel loosen up several years ago, but I think it's because I had a case of brain fade and only did a final torque on three of the four when I did a tire rotation. Properly torqued lug nuts should not work loose. If you're going to periodically retorque, be sure you use a torque wrench. Many years ago, a guy in my Javelin/AMX sports car club joined our autocross team. He was a vice president for a division of Black & Decker at the time, and he was one of those people who thought because he had a fancy title and a big salary he was better and smarter than everyone else. So he would show up at every autocross (which was almost every weekend during the summer months) and, before each event, he would pull out a BIG 4-way spanner wrench and give all his lug nuts a quarter turn to make certain they were tight. This worked fine until near the end of the season, when he discovered that he had gradually pulled the lug nuts right through the wheels. All four wheels were only good for scrap. Actually, he didn't discover it himself -- a sharp-eyed tech inspector for one of the host clubs spotted it. Thank goodness for sharp-eyed tech inspectors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75sv1 Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 I had a wheel come loose. I should have caught it sooner. It was an aluminum GC ones. I think the problem was that I used lug nuts that had been used on steel wheels. That grooved the lug nuts. They didn't seat well on the aluminum ones. I replaced then lug nuts. I might of had to replace that wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 I stuck my MJ's aluminum wheels on my new ZJ in place of the steelies cause they had winters on then... Now hoping I didn't wreck something. As it was I was already pretty iffy on the length of the studs, seems like they're shorter for steel wheels maybe? But yeah, I also had lug nuts go AWOL on one wheel after my MJ sat for a year. All the others were tight but I nearly lost a wheel too. I had two nuts left, right next to each other, about half-way off, and no others on that wheel. It trashed the wheel, hogged out all the lug holes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 Got it fixed this afternoon. It sure does drive better when there's no wheels trying to cut loose. Also rotated the tires (all of the other lug nuts were uniformly tight) and repacked the wheel bearing on that corner. To answer some questions: I have aluminum Ravine wheels on the truck. When I bought the wheels they came with the original lug nuts that went with those wheels, which I swapped on to my MJ since they were in better shape. I looked over the wheel carefully, and it doesn't look like it has any damage - maybe a scratch or two that wasn't there before. The lug nut areas on all 4 wheels look fine with no deformation. After I had the tires put on, I loosened all of the lug nuts (tire guy must have turned his impact up all the way and held the trigger down a while) and torqued them to 75 ft-lb as the FSM directs, and then retorqued with the same torque wrench after a couple days of driving. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see myself forgetting to torque the same wheel twice. Regardless of what actually happened, I'm definitely going to add "check lug nut torque" to the monthly preventative maintenance checklist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 2 hours ago, Minuit said: Regardless of what actually happened, I'm definitely going to add "check lug nut torque" to the monthly preventative maintenance checklist Thanks for the reminder. I lost a rear wheel years on an MG I had; totaled it and nearly myself. For years after I made it a point to periodically check lug nut torque, then gradually slacked off. Will get back to doing it again ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankTheDog Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 75 FT lbs seems awefully light. If I remember correctly fsm says 120. My local flatr8er tightens them to 140 with a torque wrench in 3 stages. Last stage they go around 3-4 times. They’ve never had a wheel come off. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted June 1, 2018 Author Share Posted June 1, 2018 1 hour ago, FrankTheDog said: 75 FT lbs seems awefully light. If I remember correctly fsm says 120. My local flatr8er tightens them to 140 with a torque wrench in 3 stages. Last stage they go around 3-4 times. They’ve never had a wheel come off. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 I think the owner's manual quotes something like 75lb-ft for aluminum wheels and 80 for steel. Or something, I'd have to check. Definitely go with manufacturer recommendations though. They're usually based on the size of the lugs... 140 is way high for the 1/2" lugs on an MJ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89eliminator Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 had that happen on the trail last time out. i always check lug nuts beforehand, so i know they were tight. later that day, driving down a creek and i hear loud not good noises. look back and see my back tire laying in the water. not sure how they got loose. the other 3 rims were good and tight still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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