On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 03:52:39 GMT, "George E. Cawthon"
wrote:

If you use regular oil or grease, you need to check one of
the sites on the internet to see what the torque should be.
Wet torque is usually somewhere around 70 percent of dry
torque, so it is easy to over torque the nut if you use
lubrication.

When I was building my small block 383, I followed ARP's web site for
adjusting the torque for their lube. You are right, it is about 70%
of dry torque. But with a balanced and blueprinted racing engine, I
didn't want to risk doing anything wrong.

Although wheel lugs should require more attention due to safety
reasons, they aren't exposed to near the stresses that internal engine
fasteners are. Wheel studs can take a hell of a lot more torque than
what is specified, so making adjustments for lubrication is totally
unnecessary in my opinion.

I have read that as long as lug nuts are all torqued in the proper
sequence, AND they are torqued a little at a time (all installed
finger tight first, then torqued to 25%, then 75%, then 100% for
example) instead full torque all at once, you can be well above the
recommended torque value without any real risk of damage to the wheel
or rotor/drum.

It is when you get the idiots at the tire service shop that uses an
impact wrench set for 200 foot pounds that puts the first nut on at
that torque, Then puts the next nut on when the wheel never got
perfectly centered on the hub first. It can cause non-uniform
stresses in the hub AND the wheel.

I had tires balanced at one shop, and I instructed them to hand torque
the lug nuts. I watched as the guy put all the nuts on, cinched them
down with the air impact wrench, and then put the final torque on them
with a torque wrench. He was satisfied. I wasn't. Only about half
of the nuts even moved with the torque wrench. It just proved to me
that half of the nuts were over torqued. Needless to say, I used my
4-way lug wrench and loosened/retightened all of the nuts in their
parking lot.

Dave