Date:         Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:16:57 EDT
Reply-To:     THX0001@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         George Goff <THX0001@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: lug nut torque?
Comments: To: inua@CHARTER.NET
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In a message dated 7/11/05 9:07:35 AM, inua@CHARTER.NET writes:

<< The lugnuts came off with considerable effort - but they did come off -
all but one. And that one was simply not going to come off. . .    . . . That is
when I learned about the hardened ring on the back of the nut. It took a
great deal of time and effort to cut through that ring. The rest of the metal in
the nut was relatively easy, but that ring .....good grief!!!  Once the nut was
off, the rest was easy.


Now-a-days, I also use just a tiny bit of anti-seize on those lugs. >>

John,

Your experience reflects what I, too, have seen.  That is why I speculated
about fretting corrosion causing the problem; fretting corrosion is troublesome
in high carbon, heat treated steels.

I now use a thin coating of anti-seize but only on the flange of the lug nut
because that is where I think the effects of fretting corrosion would be most
evident.  Coating the threads would require derating the applied torque to
arrive at the proper bolt stretch.  I suppose that only coating the flange also
demands a derating factor but, I conveniently put that out of my mind.

Since following this regimen, I have had no stuck lugnuts; beforehand, I
started to dread every time I had to remove a wheel.

George