On Sep 14, 10:06*pm, mm wrote:
On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:18:17 +0000 (UTC), Tegger
wrote:



mm wrote in
:

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:10:27 +0000 (UTC), Tegger
wrote:

You can be 100% certain your wheels DO have lug nuts; they are just
covered up to make the wheel look prettier. Lug nuts have been
required by law since 1968 (no I'm not kidding).

99+% of cars used lugnuts from 1945's or earlier until 1968 and
afterwards.

A good chunk anyway. And some did use bolts instead of studs and nuts,
which counted as the same thing.

That's true. I forgot about that. *But I was right, that's not what
you meant.



Are you saying they outlawed for street use the one big
nut in the middle, that one hit with a wrench to spin on or off,
instead of 4 or 5 in a circle? *What do you call that?

That's called a "knockoff". These were common on many European cars and
were available on some performance-oriented American cars (Corvette, for
one).

"Knockoffs" were outlawed on new vehicles manufactured or imported for the
US market after 1967. They /are/ permitted on vehicles that are imported to
the US after they are 25 years old, so your freshly-imported Euro-spec 1984
Ferrari Testarossa may legally retain its 450 ft-lb knockoffs!

I presume they were banned because wheels were falling off the cars?
I once changed my tire and didn't put it on well I guess, and on a two
hour trip I kept hearing knocking but didn't get out of the car to
look. I thought it was the wheel bearing or something, never having
heard a bad wheel bearing. * When I got where I was going, I looked,
and it was the lug nuts that were loose. *Two of my wheel holes were
oblong and the threads on two or three lug studs were ruined. *I was
able to tighten 4 or 5 nuts, but I had to replace the studs.**

Now that's when I had to screw up 5 nuts and I still came close to
succeeding. *If people like me have only one knockoff, I'm sure some
of them will not tighten it and the wheel will fall off.

**That led to more problems. *Instead of replacing the studs, I got an
old brake drum, with part of the wheel bearing iirc, and just
exchanged them. I knew you weren't supposed to mate two non-mated
halves of a wheel bearing, but I did it anyhow. *I drove around for a
day and it seemed fine. The next day I set off from NYC to Chicago. *I
was just north of Pittsburgh when the rider driving told me she heard
something if she headed straight ahead. *Sure enough, I was melting
the bearing onto the spindle. * Fortunately I had all my old parts in
the trunk and the guy at the dealer was able to put me back togeher
again for 8 dollars. *He had to get his boss to use an acetelyne torch
to remove the bearing from the spindle. *He's was proud that he didn't
ruin the spindle.

"the dealer was able to put me back togeher again for 8 dollars."

$8? What year was that...1922?