"mm" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:07:11 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

George wrote:
HeyBub wrote:
mm wrote:
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.**

Heh!

I recently bought a couple of tires at Walmart. I watched the
technician re-mount the tires and asked if he was done. "No," he
said, "I've got to get the manager to re-torque on the lugs and
sign-off on the job. Walmart doesn't want you to drive out of here
and have your nuts fall off." Presently the manager appeared with a
torque wrench.
Click-click-clickety-click, followed by: "Your nuts are good to go!"



I think I'll stick with my local evil mom & pop tire place where they
don't need to bring the manager out to verify basic service was done
properly.

I"m impressed that they don't just use an air wrench to put them on
tigher than I can get them off. One time I had to drive a half mile
to a tire store, on a flat, because even standing on the lug wrench,
the bolts wouldn't ocme off. And girls have even more trouble, when
I think a normal girl more than 5'5" ought to be able to remove a tire
when the lug nuts are tightened by hand, but not if done by an air
wrench.

Does any other chain use a manual torque wrench?

they install the lug nets with air tools, but torque them to spec with a
manual wrench. or they should. a bunch of lawsuits about not putting them on
properly forced most large chains to do so.