[Spridgets] Wheel Studs

[brian S]

After I got home from Kevin V's, from the previously mentioned engine swap,
I couldn't get my Bugeye inspected with my Minilites and quasi-race tires, not
enough tread for him.
 So,

Dave Booker was gracious enough to lend me the tires/wheels from his Midget.


Drove it to his house, Got 3 on just fine, but on the driver's side front, we
were having a hard time getting the lug nuts tight.
Before even getting them close to being tight, I snapped a stud. Hmmm, crap.
Next one, snap, and then when I was working

on a third, was going ok, SNAP. WTH???  So I had to go back to my house and
get my trailer to haul it home.

I left the last stud loose for fear of snapping it.

Fortunately I have spare studs at home. I have long and short ones. Not
thinking (uh oh) about it too

much I figure it doesn't matter so I put the long ones in. So Dave and I pop
out the old and in with the new studs.
Very easy thing to do, hammer out the old ones and pull the new ones in with a
large nut over the stud

followed by a lug nut and tighten.
We repack the outer bearing while we had it out.
We figure I have more extra studs, we may as well replace the passenger's side
while we're at it.
Well, I only had 3 more long ones, but 8 short ones, so we'll put the short
ones in that side.
Well, I put the outer bearing in backwards and while putting it on the car it
wouldn't tighten properly.
After pulling it back apart, we noticed that I hadn't put the outer bearing in
properly, ie, thrust side in.
Oops.
I decided to repack the inner bearing since I had it apart, but buggered up
the seal getting it out.
We looked around online for seals and bearing kits, it was 5pm on a Saturday.
Dave suggested we call a local parts store. They were still open so I called
and he said he didn't have a seal but could have one
on Monday. Great!  I picked it up and it looked different, solid metal outer,
where the one in it was rubber coated.
And it was $11 where online ones were about $4, but it was from National
Seal.
But it fit fine.
I also chased all the threads in the lug nuts with a 3/8 tap, there was quite
a bit of crap that came out, both

in the rest of his lug nuts and in mine.
 Fortunately I had kept the open lug nuts when I did my Front disk conversion,
as I had ruined 3 of
Dave's Chrome ones. I got it inspected with Dave's wheels and tires.
It handles MUCH differently with 155/80 tires than with my 185/60 Comp T/A
RA1s.
It rides better, has more ground clearance, so I don't scrape the ground as
much over bumps,
 but it slides around alot more, kinda fun, but different.

When I went to put my Minilites with their shouldered lug nuts back on, I
found that they wouldn't tighten
all the way on the long studs. Crap. Good thing I still had 4 short ones left
in the can.
Swapped them out and it's good to go.`
An experience, but we both learned from it and had some fun.

Thanks for your help Dave!

Brian S.
Bugeyeracer finally resto'ed!
Thanks to Frank C.!