Story:

Well, I bought 18" Saleens from AM not too long ago. Well I got them put on at a local tire shop that does pretty good work. They didn't use the air ratchet to tighten them down, they hand tightened them. Well when I drove it home that day there was a steering whell shake in it, blah blah blah. Well finally I got around to looking at it, turns out the wheels aren't rotating in balance. Neither one of the front ones. Now my question, since they've always been hand tightened, could that be the cause of them rotating out of balance? It's not the tire, it's the wheel, so is there a certain number you're supposed to torque them at?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any help.

 

Anyone? If I can't figure out what it is I'm going to buy two new wheels...

 

Can't figure out what you mean. Are you suggesting that the bolt pattern isn't centered in the wheel (and it rolls like a cam lobe), or that it wobbles as it rolls (like it was bent), or what? Are they mounted using the correct lug nuts?

There is a torque spec for tightening wheels. It depends on the lug size, but is generally around 80 ft-lbs for most cars. That's with clean, dry threads (no lube of any kind).

Norm

 

Heh, love your name. I'm pretty sure that it's the bolts, for it to be both wheels. To test it we jacked the car up and put a can next to the wheel, turned the tire and you could tell that the wheel would move a good 1/8 of an inch on rotation. And yes, they're the proper lugnuts, but they were tightened by hand.

So you suggest torquing them all to 80 lbs with a torque wrench?

 

Check to see if an assembly washer is hanging things up (behind the wheel, may be stuck to them). That might be enough to give you your 1/8" of lateral runout at the tire. If you find any, just throw them away.

Final torquing by hand to a torque spec is something I'vedone for many years, though I now have a cordless impact wrench that I use to speed up the initial "snugging".

Actually, most cars give a range of torque values at least in the shop manual, maybe something like 70 - 85 (example only). Without information to the contrary, 80 or so should fall within the acceptable range for most cars. Just so you don't think you have to loosen and start from scratch if you end up a few ft-lbs high, I'll note (but not recommend) that many shops run lug nuts down to 100 with the air wrench using a form of torque control.

Anyway, tighten in a 'star' pattern, and it doesn't hurt to go 'round the pattern a second time since the first nut or two tightened occasionally relaxes as the others are tightened.

Norm

 

There are two washer looking things on the bolts per wheel, which could give it that 1/8" like you said, but my dad said that they were part of the brakes... Are they the washers, or part of the brakes? Or do you need pictures to know?

Thanks for help btw.

 

They're only there to hold the rotors/drums on the axles at the assembly plant until the wheels get mounted. OE wheels account for them in one way or another, but not all aftermarket wheels do. Once the car leaves the factory, they serve no purpose and may be discarded.

Norm

 

mustangs typically use 100ft/lbs

 

Just to make sure we're on the same page as to what we're talking about, here are some pictures of it. I told my dad about it and he said not to take it off, so I'm just confirming it one last time before I take it off, heh.

(Sorry for the low quality pictures, cell phone.)

 

those small metal retainers are stock... thats how the car came. You CAN remove them, however, leaving them isnt gonna hurt anything