Morris Minor Owners Club

Wheel nuts that is! Daughter complained about serious clonking noise from front nearside. Thought I ought to check inside brake drum - but didn't get that far, wheels nuts were very loose and one had worked its way about quarter way off! Also brake drum screws were loose. Trouble may be due to some tightly fitting new brake shoes recently fitted, but on checking the rest of the cars wheel nuts I found they were all less than properly torqued up.

I think many of us are too used to modern cars, and our old Moggies wheels have probably been on and off more times than we have had hot dinners! The threads of both the nuts and the studs becoming worn after many years, (exasperated by tyre shop impact wrenches no doubt), maybe a good idea to replace or at least have a weekly check (probably says to do this in the original handbook anyway). I remember when Moggies were very common on the roads - I'd often notice one abandoned at the road side with one front wheel horizontal.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL

--horizontal but still bolted to the hub!

Because the trunnion had pulled out of the kingpin...........

Wheel nuts should be part of a daily check, on trucks and busses also cars with no wheel trims it would mostly be a "visuall" check looking sor rusty/rust coloured water stains etc.

unfortunatley there is no advanced warning in the form of a "visuall" where wheel trims and hub caps are fitted. But best advice we give to customers and our drivers is to ALWAYS re-check wheel nuts on a newly changed wheel after 50 miles or so. Even more important if it's the spare from underneat as on taper nut fitments the shiney female tapered hole in a stored wheel soon gets surface rust and if tapered nuts are fitted onto rust they VERY SOON come loose.

That's why we refit EVERY wheel in the workshop with a torque wrench we only use the air gun to gently run the nuts/bolts down on the threads then torque to the manufacturers torque. On re-checking later we DON'T slacken the nuts as that defeats the object!

I just can't find it at the moment but when I do I'll post it, it's a newsletter from VOSA to our minibus operators licence dept re wheel nuts & wheel losses. It ask's us to be vigulant re potential wheel loss. Saying that a high percentage of wheel losses they attend on the roadside 90% IIRC have recently had a wheel change where oil or grease/copperslip had been applied to the wheel nut/bolt threads. No lubricant whatsoever should be applied to wheel fixing threads as the correct torque cannot be applied and it eases the loss of the nuts/bolts. THE ONLY EXEPTION to this is when experiencing very dry rusty squeaky threads and then only a matchstick head sized drop on...... can't remember it's either in the nut or I think more likely the tip of the threads or bollt to aid re fitting.

Another problem is newly painted wheels were the tapers have been painted and the paint gets scrunched up.

Is this really a problem? For those that suffer from this ailment---wire them together!

drivewasher wrote:Wheel nuts should be part of a daily check, on trucks and busses also cars with no wheel trims it would mostly be a "visuall" check looking sor rusty/rust coloured water stains etc.

unfortunatley there is no advanced warning in the form of a "visuall" where wheel trims and hub caps are fitted. But best advice we give to customers and our drivers is to ALWAYS re-check wheel nuts on a newly changed wheel after 50 miles or so. Even more important if it's the spare from underneat as on taper nut fitments the shiney female tapered hole in a stored wheel soon gets surface rust and if tapered nuts are fitted onto rust they VERY SOON come loose.

That's why we refit EVERY wheel in the workshop with a torque wrench we only use the air gun to gently run the nuts/bolts down on the threads then torque to the manufacturers torque. On re-checking later we DON'T slacken the nuts as that defeats the object!

I just can't find it at the moment but when I do I'll post it, it's a newsletter from VOSA to our minibus operators licence dept re wheel nuts & wheel losses. It ask's us to be vigulant re potential wheel loss. Saying that a high percentage of wheel losses they attend on the roadside 90% IIRC have recently had a wheel change where oil or grease/copperslip had been applied to the wheel nut/bolt threads. No lubricant whatsoever should be applied to wheel fixing threads as the correct torque cannot be applied and it eases the loss of the nuts/bolts. THE ONLY EXEPTION to this is when experiencing very dry rusty squeaky threads and then only a matchstick head sized drop on...... can't remember it's either in the nut or I think more likely the tip of the threads or bollt to aid re fitting.

Another problem is newly painted wheels were the tapers have been painted and the paint gets scrunched up.

AHA, Yes, guilty of the use of Copper Grease!!!

Remove the wheels give the studs a good wash in brake cleaner or a solvent while your'e doing that drop the nuts in a tub of the same stuff. Let them all dry when cleaned off, use an air blow gun if you have one.
Refit wheels with dry clean studs/nuts

We get loads of tyre customers in with copperslip on the studs/bolts. We get as much off as we cane and I always put a note on the invoice (Wheel studs previously greased).
You'll be suprised how many garages put lube on wheel studs!

Of course it can be applied on the centre boss of the hub and the flange where the wheel sits to stop the wheel sticking onto the steel hub particulary with alloy wheels (dissimilar metals) as they tend to stick fast

drivewasher wrote:Remove the wheels give the studs a good wash in brake cleaner or a solvent while your'e doing that drop the nuts in a tub of the same stuff. Let them all dry when cleaned off, use an air blow gun if you have one.
Refit wheels with dry clean studs/nuts

We get loads of tyre customers in with copperslip on the studs/bolts. We get as much off as we cane and I always put a note on the invoice (Wheel studs previously greased).
You'll be suprised how many garages put lube on wheel studs!

Of course it can be applied on the centre boss of the hub and the flange where the wheel sits to stop the wheel sticking onto the steel hub particulary with alloy wheels (dissimilar metals) as they tend to stick fast

two different metals + moisture/medium = battery = oxidation == stickability increased hence why some alloy are absolute pigs to take off

Yeh It's called electrolitic action between dissimilar metals. There is a table listing metals and the further away in the table the 2 metals are the greater the electrolitic action between them hence the quicker they erode

A good example on theis was older landrovers had steel hinges clamped onto an aliuminium A or B post you could see the aluminium being eaten away

It's also referd to as galvanic action, but I was wgging it the day we did chemistry lol...