I use spacers also and have never had this problem. However, I do the wheel
change thing slightly different. Rather than hand tightening and then
completely lowering the car to torque the lugnuts, I lower the car just
enough for the tires to be on the ground to do the torquing. Obviously you
need to have enough weight on the tire so it doesn't spin when you torque
the nuts, but no more than this.
I think what was happening is that you weren't getting a "good" torque
reading due to binding when the nuts weren't already tight enough to be
seated. You're new way unbinds everything and the problem goes away, but as
you say, it's probably not best for the lugs to do it this way.
Ron Bauer
'98 Acura Integra Type R
Team Butt Heat
-----Original Message-----
From: Craig Blome <cblome@yahoo.com>
To: autox@autox.team.net <autox@autox.team.net>
Date: Friday, October 01, 1999 1:31 PM
Subject: Wheel spacers and torque
>Hey all,
>
>Got a question about the wheel spacers I use with my
>race rims. I have a pretty basic set of 1/4", 4x100,
>non-hubcentric spacers I use with the front wheels on
>my Miata. When I first started using them, I noticed
>that they turned on the hub a tiny bit and were hard
>to pry off (steel lugs bite into aluminum spacers
>pretty viciously!) My procedure then was this:
>
>1. jack up car
>2. change wheels and install spacers
>3. spin lug nuts tight (one good tug, maybe 15 lb-ft)
>4. lower car
>5. torque lug nuts to spec, car on ground
>
>I discovered if I added a couple of extra steps, the
>problem with turning went away:
>
>6. drive car around pits
>7. re-torque lug nuts to spec
>
>This doesn't happen when I use wheels without spacers.
> Any idea what's going on? Did I goof something up?
>I'm really more worried about abusing the lugs as
>they're more expense and fuss to replace than spacers.
> (and it'd be just my luck to get protested for having
>ARP wheel lugs... :)
>
>TIA,
>Craig Blome
>
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