My left hand doesn't know what my right hand is doing

cmperry4 · #1 18-03-05, 23:20

Having realized that the right side wheel nuts on the rear rim were LH thread, I proceeded to the right front, to discover that those wheel nuts were RH thread. I then proceeded with suspicion to the left front wheel to indeed discover those nuts and studs to be LH. So what gives? Are the opposite handed threads supposed to be on opposite corners, or on the right side only? Right side makes sense, opposite corners seems peculiar. Did some genius - perhaps the same guy who cold chisels hub nuts on and off - just throw the hub on without bothering to think to hard about the handedness of things?
I guess if I dig around in the manuals a little more, I may find the answer to which side what goes on.
It's nutty.

Alex Blair (RIP) · #2 18-03-05, 23:40

Quote:

Originally posted by cmperry4
Having realized that the right side wheel nuts on the rear rim were LH thread, I proceeded to the right front, to discover that those wheel nuts were RH thread. I then proceeded with suspicion to the left front wheel to indeed discover those nuts and studs to be LH. So what gives? Are the opposite handed threads supposed to be on opposite corners, or on the right side only? Right side makes sense, opposite corners seems peculiar. Did some genius - perhaps the same guy who cold chisels hub nuts on and off - just throw the hub on without bothering to think to hard about the handedness of things?
I guess if I dig around in the manuals a little more, I may find the answer to which side what goes on.
It's nutty.

Hi Mark
I guess you didn't have too much to do with old Chrysler products back in the '50-'60's...
The wheel studs were left and right hand threads also..
I was putting new springs in my '64 Valiant convertible in the shop and the young ambitious apprentice broke all five studs off the left hand threaded studs while I was out..
So I just put right hand studs back in..
Funny..three right hand sets of studs and one still left hand on the front..
Wouldn't do to rotate the tires when I was drinkin' beer..

cmperry4 · #3 19-03-05, 04:18

As a matter of fact, a guy here at work mentioned that Chrysler practise when I was telling him about my adventures in torquing off the tip of my socket extension.

rob love · #4 19-03-05, 04:44

Left hand thread on the left side, Right hand thread on the right.
We had enough trouble in the army with drivers even knowing which way a nut and bolt screwed together in the first place; God help him if we switched a pair of hubs on him.

I remember in Cypress, during a regimental competition, we mechanics swapped a cuople of lh/rh studs on the infantry guys jeep trailers (they had to change tires from left to right, and then manually tow the trailer around a course). It didn't make a shread of difference to them. We could have beat them even without cheating.

Richard Farrant · #5 19-03-05, 20:00

Quote:

Originally posted by rob love
Left hand thread on the left side, Right hand thread on the right.

Rob,

The trouble is there are a lot of people who think the Left (or Right) of a vehicle, is from standing facing it and not from looking forward from the driving position. This is where some of the problems come from. The vehicle in question might have had two people of different minds working on it, hence why the front hub was correct.

I know of someone, with a large British APC, who sheared all the wheel nuts on one side, because he was not aware they were Left handed thread

If in doubt with a wheel stud and there is some of the stud protruding through the nut, it is easy to spot the difference between left and right, from the angle of the thread. As this is my trade, it is easy to say this I suppose, but a little caution saves a heap of problems later on

Richard

Keith Webb · #6 27-03-05, 09:15

Having decided to do the right thing and replace the left rear brake drum on the C60S which was worn to the point that the adjusting cam turned past it's high point I made some discoveries.

I had a right rear Ford drum in good nick but with stuffed bearings so I needed to swap the hubs.

Knocked out all the studs on both, cleaned and painted all the bits, then came to reassemble and found the drums and studs are slightly different.

Ford studs have a flat on the bottom edge which aligns to a lip on the drum to locate them. They are smooth along the shank.

Chev studs are milled on the shank to locate them and don't have a flat to fit the drum. The solution I think will be to grind a flat on the studs or find another Chev hub/drum.