"David A. Webb" wrote:

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

I suspect you are correct about higher torque for wheel nuts
on most wheels and vehicles. Only until the last few years
did I start using a torque wrench and often didn't have a
clue what the torque was supposed to be. And , when I did
know he torque requirement, I could just guess this is 2
feet long so 100 ft-pounds means I have to pull it about 50
pounds worth. As long as the nuts don't come undone, I
can't imagine why less torque would hurt. OTOH, I've seen
people put at least a hundred foot pounds on a little 3/8
nut and wondered how often they snap off.

I was surprised at the last set of studded tire that I
bought at Costco. The guy changing the tires torqued all
the nuts up a ways and then changed the torque setting (it
was obvious he increased the torque0 and then torqued each
nut again (some at least did move a bit. He sat around for
a while and I couldn't figure out what the delay was, but
finally the supervisor came over, with another wrench, (the
first worker was holding his) and tested the torque of each
nut. I've never seen anything like this before, but it's
appears standard at this shop for the supervisor to check
the grunts work with another torque wrench.