Hi Deano
I also thought the 70 or 80 ft-lb figure was a little high the first time I
heard it (from a guy selling me a set of vintage aluminum wheels for my '65
VW). Then I looked it up on tirerack.com:
www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/torque.htm
and it's exactly what they recommend for 7/16" fittings (and modern alloy
wheels, judging by the illustrations). In fact, the VW's 14mm lugs supposedly
need 85-90.
But you're probably right about older wheels being more fragile than newer
ones. If you have not had a wheel fall off in 37 years, then 50 ft-lbs must be
enough for Silverstones. On the other hand, one of my aluminum VW wheels did
work loose once, even at 70 ft-lbs... So I learned to re-torque every few
hundred miles. Seems like this would be even more critical at 50 ft-lbs?
Cheers
-Nick
On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, Paige, Dean wrote:
> Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 15:43:13 -0700
> From: "Paige, Dean" <DPaige@ci.santa-rosa.ca.us>
> Subject: RE: American Racing Silverstone - Lug nuts????
>
> I'd be really careful about torqueing mag wheels to 70 to 80 lbs. Fact is, I
>wouldn't do it on a bet! The most that is recommended for even modern
>mag/alloy wheels is 50 lbs. That should be more than sufficient. I say this
>from the experience of using ONE....yes ONE set of American Racing mags
>original on my first TR-4a and since on my TR-6 for...well let's see... 2004 -
>1967 that makes 37 years! Beat that! Not to mention that the TR-6 has now
>clocked 318,000 miles. There is absolutely no need to torque higher and you
>run the risk of cracking the wheel at that pressure.
>
> Deano
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