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Nuts!


sgnas

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Just a heads up to "check your nuts"

Used the 20yr old 90 for the daily 80mile commute last week. Nothing unusual in that, have to put some miles on it somehow as it goes nowhere interesting anymore. :(

Coming off th M3 onto the A303 I had to speed up a little to pass a gaggle of cars. Once on the A303 I slowed back to ~65mph. Immediately got a bit of a rumble and vibration. I've had a UJ lose a cup before and it sounded similar so thought it was that again. Slowed a little, and umming and ahrinin over continuing the rest of the ~15miles without stopping. The rumbling and vibration were getting worse a lot quicker than I expected. Fortunately there is a service station soon after the join so I pulled in. Stuck the car nose in to a hedge (so I did not have to put the handbrake on) and went under the car to investigate. A little bit of play but nothing too bad. A little while spent wondering then around the car checking wheel bearings. The very last one to be checked looked like this:

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I've never had this happen before, all five nuts were nearly off :o

gallery_28_85_10374.jpg

What is really shocking is that I travelled no more than a mile and a half from the first indication something was loose, it deteriorated very very quickly. This wheel and tyre weigh 40kg and I really would not want to loose that!

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Also a good recomendation for using original LR wheels as the centres fit closely over the hub.

An 8 spoke would have vibrated itself off or at the very least would have mullered the rim and studs.

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answer is in the pics, as nuts clearly show rust on last 2-3 threads.

The last set of 8 spokes were thick as well, so I've always had 1 or 2 turns of thread left in the nut.

Never really thought that extra bit would make the difference, might now convince myself otherwise :rolleyes:

The drivers side were not quite as tight as I expected either. The backs were very well done up.

I can only think I didn't give them the last "nip up" after I had them off for the bulkhead change (although I was sure I had) or they had them off at the MOT.

And then, it's taken them ~600 miles to work loose and 1 and 1/2 miles to come off!

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I can only think I didn't give them the last "nip up" after I had them off for the bulkhead change (although I was sure I had) or they had them off at the MOT.

And then, it's taken them ~600 miles to work loose and 1 and 1/2 miles to come off!

Are you using a torque wrench to tighten them? If not it would be a good time to start, over tightening can be just as bad as not tight enough.

Cheers

Steve

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Are you using a torque wrench to tighten them? If not it would be a good time to start, over tightening can be just as bad as not tight enough.

Cheers

Steve

I had that happen to me once with freestyle alloy wheels. I put it down to sabotage, which was proven when our new 110 was vandalised in the same carpark 8 weeks later.

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Scary!

I've not had that happen to me as yet, I spend too much time messing with my wheels and brakes to let them go unchecked for long.

However, I did lose a wheel returning from a play at Bovington in the 6x6. Wet sand had wrecked the hub oil seal just before I left and trundelling down the motorway at 70mph I felt a rumbling wobble so I pulled over.

I had a good look around and didn't see anything amiss so I felt all the hubs to see if any were warm.

The nearside front hub was too hot to touch!

I jacked up the axle and the wheel, drum and hub fell off.

On inspection the bearings had ground themselves away. The wheel continued to run on the drive shaft until the shaft welded itself onto the stubaxle and the wheel twisted the rest of the hot shaft off. The only thing keeping the hub on the stub axle was the melted ridges of what was the bearing carriers.

The AA took a bit of convincing of what I needed in terms of a recovery. I asked for a flatbead recovery with a single wheel dolly to go under the missing wheel. Eventually they found one, the recovery chap had never seen or used one before.

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Are you using a torque wrench to tighten them? If not it would be a good time to start, over tightening can be just as bad as not tight enough.

Cheers

Steve

I frequently see the monkeys at the tyre place consult the workshop manual and adjust the torque settings on their rattle guns, not.

I have had to drill bolts, put on by the monkeys, out before. Once the tension was released, by getting the head off, the rest of the bolt turned in the threads by hand :ph34r:

I have one of the extendable wheelbraces. I usually "nip" the nuts up, pulling up the brace without extension.

I, should, then be guaranteed to get them off again using the extension. Never had to jump up and down on a brace to get the wheel off using this method.

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Sorry to discount the sabotage theory, but they've been loose for a while - the tell-tale radial rust streaks from each stud give it away.

I'd echo all the talk of torque above, but also make sure the hub, wheel and cone mating faces are clean, or else you'll see the torque come up while you're still compressing dirt...

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Sorry to discount the sabotage theory, but they've been loose for a while - the tell-tale radial rust streaks from each stud give it away.

I'd echo all the talk of torque above, but also make sure the hub, wheel and cone mating faces are clean, or else you'll see the torque come up while you're still compressing dirt...

Also true with new wheels - you compress the paint first, so nuts need re-tightening almost every trip out until you are through to bare metal. You could of course remove the paint before applying the nuts...

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XD/Wolf wheel nuts should be torqued to 163 to 177Nm or 120 to 130lbft regardless of the studs that are fitted. read the other links to find my experience with running XD/Wolf steel wheels for the last 12 years.

refer to the LR Tech Bulletin 60/04/97/en below :i-m_so_happy:

post-20-1247604104_thumb.jpg

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