On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:06:24 -0500, BillGill wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
Tegger wrote:

"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!

So does Ferrari provide owners with the appropriate torque wrench, right
there with the jack and spare tire?
The Ferrari came with a lead hammer to wallop the nut into place. That was
standard on more expensive sports cars at the time. I had them on my
MG-B in the 1960s.

Indeed - forget using a torque wrench. Keeping a normal lump hammer and a
piece of wood in the car was a practice often seen. I've never used a
torque wrench on any of my old vehicles even with conventional wheel nuts
- doing it by feel alone has always been fine.

I got into the habit of just taking wheels into tire places rather
than the whole car, too, because I found they had a habit of messing up
alloy wheels or over-torquing the nuts and damaging the threads :-(
Better to haul 'em in using another vehicle and put them back on the car
at home...

cheers

Jules