FYI: Wheels and tires

[papakb]

An issue I had with the 12 bolt wheels was that I wasn't torquing them properly when I changed tires. I used a long 1/2" breaker bar and tightened them to where I thought they felt tight. What was happening was I'd be driving down the road and all the sudden I'd hear what sounded like a pistol shot. It didn't matter what speed I was going or if I was on a straight or curve section of road. Bang! I'd get out and would see 1 or two studs broken off at the wheel face.

What it turned out to be was uneven torque on the wheel bolts. I aired down all my tires and retorqued all the bolts in a two step process, I torqued them to 75 pounds and then to 110. Since doing this I haven't broken a stud so be aware that it's important to torque them properly. In the long run I don't know whether I was overtorquing them or undertorquing them but when working on your wheels and tires keep this in mind.

 

[Wire Fox]

Good to know. There's a good chance I would have screwed this one up without this warning from you.

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

I wouldn't have even thought myself to torque HMMWV or M1009 wheels to spec.

 

[ryanruck]

But seriously, always best to hit the lug nuts with a torque wrench when changing tires!

 

[Action]

I did all my 24 bolt rims with a ratchet then torque wrench. No impact for me. It took a while and a few drinks...

 

[Wire Fox]

View attachment 712186

But seriously, always best to hit the lug nuts with a torque wrench when changing tires!

I loved that the last tire shop that touched the wheels of my cars proudly used torque wrenches...set to the wrong spec. Literally overheard "What's the torque on this one?" "Just set it to 100 and move on!"

Thanks guys, 22-28 lbs over spec.

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[98G]

Thanks for the PSA.

Like many people, I didn't take it seriously either - " good enough is good enough" . Um, no. In my case I broke wheel studs on a 5ton. Now I know better, from personal experience.

Let's hope others learn from our mistakes and avoid the personal experience themselves.

 

[porkysplace]

I loved that the last tire shop that touched the wheels of my cars proudly used torque wrenches...set to the wrong spec. Literally overheard "What's the torque on this one?" "Just set it to 100 and move on!"

Thanks guys, 22-28 lbs over spec.

Sent from my SM-G530T using Tapatalk

A lot of tire shops like using torque limiters on air guns , but you can't beat a quality torque wrench .

 

[Action]

I loved that the last tire shop that touched the wheels of my cars proudly used torque wrenches...set to the wrong spec. Literally overheard "What's the torque on this one?" "Just set it to 100 and move on!"

Thanks guys, 22-28 lbs over spec.

Sent from my SM-G530T using Tapatalk

100 isnt over for the final torque on 12 and 24 bolt rims.

 

[Wire Fox]

100 isnt over for the final torque on 12 and 24 bolt rims.

Sorry, I wasn't talking about my MV with that tire shop. That was wheel bolts on my Dodge Dart. Just an example of sloppy shop work.

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[ryanruck]

I did all my 24 bolt rims with a ratchet then torque wrench. No impact for me. It took a while and a few drinks...

Jesus man, are you some kind of sadist or something?

 

[98G]

Masochist.

Sadist would be if he made you do it...

 

[ryanruck]

Masochist.

Sadist would be if he made you do it...

 

[Action]

Jesus man, are you some kind of sadist or something?

Too lazy to plug in the air compressor!

 

[ryanruck]

Too lazy to plug in the air compressor!

And a good excuse to drink!

 

[papakb]

Wirefox, if your using 85# as your wheel torque spec then your torquing your wheels to the old 8 bolt bias tire spec. Doing an search online for HMMWV wheel torque specs takes you to several sites that specify 110# for the 12 bolt wheels with radial tires but I just took a look in the new TM and came up with 125#. My wheels are all torqued to 110# and I haven't had any problems in the last 3 years. That 125# spec might be the current spec for the grossly overweight HMMWVs with full armor packages they drive today.

 

[ryanruck]

Wirefox, if your using 85# as your wheel torque spec then your torquing your wheels to the old 8 bolt bias tire spec. Doing an search online for HMMWV wheel torque specs takes you to several sites that specify 110# for the 12 bolt wheels with radial tires but I just took a look in the new TM and came up with 125#. My wheels are all torqued to 110# and I haven't had any problems in the last 3 years. That 125# spec might be the current spec for the grossly overweight HMMWVs with full armor packages they drive today.

View attachment 712310

This reminds me... I know I posted it to a 24 bolt thread a while ago but, since it's a little hard to find newer TMs with info on the 24 bolt tightening pattern, here's the section on the bolt tightening pattern and torque specs for both the D and E rated 24 bolt wheels.

View attachment TM 9-2320-387-24-1 -- 24 Bolt Wheel Addendum.pdf

 

[Wire Fox]

Wirefox, if your using 85# as your wheel torque spec then your torquing your wheels to the old 8 bolt bias tire spec. Doing an search online for HMMWV wheel torque specs takes you to several sites that specify 110# for the 12 bolt wheels with radial tires but I just took a look in the new TM and came up with 125#. My wheels are all torqued to 110# and I haven't had any problems in the last 3 years. That 125# spec might be the current spec for the grossly overweight HMMWVs with full armor packages they drive today.

View attachment 712310

Good info, but my post earlier was about the bad work a shop did on my Dodge Dart, not my HMMWV. Much lighter duty application!

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[DatGuyC]

Once I realized those nuts on the wheels were lock-nuts there was no way I was gonna do them by hand. Cinched them all down in a star pattern with the impact and haven't had a problem and I've driven my truck over 10k miles. These were 24 bolt wheels so that might help spread the load on the studs. One trick I used to make sure the two halves of the wheels were centered was to use 4 of those tapered lug nuts to make sure the holes were centered around the studs. I got the face tight but not all the way seated with the normal lock nuts and then tightened the 4 tapered nuts lubed with anti-seize to keep it centered. I'd go around in a pattern of tightening the normal nuts then the tapered ones and back to the normal ones till it was bottomed out. Then just backed off the tapered nuts and put the normal ones back on.

 

[gringeltaube]

.... One trick I used to make sure the two halves of the wheels were centered was to use 4 of those tapered lug nuts to make sure the holes were centered around the studs.....

And what if I told you that centering the holes on the studs is no guarantee at all, for lowest radial runout of the inner wheel section?

Easy to confirm, if you mounted just the wheel - no tire, on a hub and spun the whole thing. I bet you'll be surprised...


G.