Tonight driving home I saw an old ford pickup on the side of the hiway the wheel had fallen off. Got me to thinking i usually dont pay attention to how tight i get my lug nuts, i usually just get it done ina hurry and go on about my business. Whats the proper torque specs for lug nuts on our trucks? I know overtightening them is possible also.

 

I think my truck is 90 FT LBS

 

Standard torques for trucks are 90 ft-lbs for 1/2" lug bolts and 145 ft-lbs for 9/16 lug bolts. (220 ft-lbs for duals)

 

I belive the 9/16-18 lug nuts were only on the 350's So everybody else is 90 Ft-lbs.

DON"T overtighten your lugnuts. I spent yesterday checking wheel bearings and brakes for the first time on my 250. Friggin PO had them WAYYY too tight. I weight a good 250 lbs and had to jump on the end of a 4 Ft cheater-bar to bust 'em loose. Coulda killed somebody... literally.

Now I have to gank all of the hubs off so I can press in new studs. GRRRR

Overtightening you lug nuts destroys the threads and comprimises the integrity of the stud!!! Don't be the jacka$$ on the side of the road missing a tire, do it right the first time.

Tighter is not better.

(I'm a mechanical engineer, and I approve this message)

 

I don't believe a type of truck was specified so I gave the specs for all sizes.

I took my truck in and had my tires rotated and balanced. A couple of days later I had to take a wheel off for some reason. (my mind is going) I put a 3 foot cheater bar on a Craftsman breaker bar and couldn't break them loose. The little 4 inch extension on the socket broke and I darn near killed myself when I hit the ground. The extension broke with jagged pieces and luckily didn't go flying. It could have caused some major hurt if it had hit me.

I was madder than you know what. I took the broken extension, my torque wrench and the truck right back to the tire shop. I showed them the broken extension and gave them heck for pounding those lugs down that tight. I told them to back the darn things off and I would torque the lugs myself. This is a small town with a local tire shop and it is know that when I come in a torque wrench is always used on my wheels with my supervision.

 

Tighten all 1/2" lugnuts to 100 ft/lbs, and 9/16" lugnuts to 140 ft/lbs. This is Ford specification.

 

I am sitting here looking right at my 1977 Ford Truck Shop Manual and it states F100 through F250 with 1/2-20 lugs 90 ft-lbs. F350 with 9/16-18 lugs 135 ft-lbs single wheel and 210 ft-lbs for dual wheels. My manual is not an after market manual but is the ford manual. Maybe different years had different specs.

 

Yesterday I finally got rid of the split rims on my 71 F 350. Hunted around and finally came up with 7 stud pilot 16 inch rims. Negotiated a reasonable deal at local tire shop and went in to have them changed. Told them well in advance that it was an old truck. After the managed to snap off a stud on the hub we had a bit of a intervention and I suggested to them (remember the tire professionals) that perhaps the lug nuts come off differently on one side than the other. It was news to them. Granted I live in an urban area and time, bad drivers, and lack of mechanical knowledge have eliminated a lot of older vehicles. After that I watched them carefully (although not carefully enough) and they did use a torque wrench. I asked what it was set at and they told me 155 lbs as that is what the newer F 350s recommend. Thankfully the misadventure was over at quitting time. They said their "Tech" will fix the stud. I paid up and left. As I left the shopping center parking lot and accelerated to a breathtaking speed of 35 miles an hour, one of the wheel weights went flying off into the other lane. Having had my fill of disappointment, knowing I had to return one day soon, I went home.

Just so it's not all story of doom and gloom, the new tires rode so well and the deafening roar of the lugged mud and snow tires is now gone that I managed to crack a smile. Today I went outside to admire my tire purchase, and I noticed that every other lug nut was backward (wheels have in and out taper holes). Now I could take it back (I have to anyhow for the stud and wheel weight) but I risk the short attention span (again, tire professional) impact operator. I am thinking I am better off turning the backwards lug nuts myself. Does anyone the correct torque specs for the wheels on a 1971 F350? Thank you very much.

 

Became a firm believer in anti-seize on lug nuts when I had to walk a few miles home from a stranded car on which some idiot with an impact had just let 'er rip. Every tire place I go to knows to manually torque or I go elsewhere. Oddly, the Wally World I went to was one of the best - when I had them mount tires I had ordered on my car, they paged me and had me out in the shop to witness them manually torqueing them down.

 

I have noticed (around here, Ohio, at least) that the torque wrench is pretty widely used at chain stores. Even saw something that looked like an extension that had only so much resistance before it spun. Hard to imagine how this works, but I have be surprised by some of the newer designed tools out there.

 

Its called a torque stick, its designed to twist and absorb the impact of the impact wrench after a certain ft lb is reach to prevent any farther tightening. They come in all the popular torque values, some are extensions some have the socket end cast right on. They do work but all guns are different and might need to be turned down for the correct torque to be reached so they should be checked with a torque wrench and dialed when you get them or a new impact gun.

 

Thanks, I had always kind of wondered what they were called.

 

I figured that the operator still had to know something to use torque-sticks, but have never read up on them. All I know is that every time they rely on them, I can't loosen the lug nut by hand.
I made one of the local Goodyear tire shops replace the studs AND the steel wheels on a friend's Mustang. TWICE!
The second time was her fault because I'd warned her against going back there, but since they were the "professionals" doing the install, I made them replace the wheels again anyway. They literally deformed and gouged out the recessed seats where the lug nuts go. Plus they buggered at least two of the studs on each corner. All while using torque-sticks.

For the last twenty years or so I bring my torque wrench to every tire shop I need to go to for whatever car or truck needs work at the time. If they insist on doing the torque with an impact, that's OK. I simply insist that I check the torque with my wrench. Not worried too much about break-away torque, just worried that I can't loosen them with my long handled 1/2" drive wrench. Which most of the time I can't, so then they will allow their tech to manually torque them down using their wrenches.
It's a little bit of a PITA if you're in a hurry, but well worth it no matter what.

The best stores around here are the, for lack of a better description, the Mexican mom & pop stores. They're busy, feed you through quickly and efficiently, but listen when you tell them you want them torqued. One guy even let his tech do it the normal way first, then he came out and tried to loosen them himself before manually torquing. Got a HUGE surprise!
I was watching and the installer did everything possible to put as little torque on it as he could with his air impact gun. He did exactly what I would have done at home, and triggered it easily and quickly, with zero "after tight hammering" or in other words, no excessive impacts. AND IT WAS STILL OVER-TORQUED!
I couldn't believe the power those guns have on high shop pressure. Even the owner had to do a double take on it when he struggled to loosen the nuts with the big wrench. Made the installer come back with his gun and loosen them all first.

Anyway, long way of saying it's best to check right then and there no matter how confident you are in the shop, or how willing they are to work with you. Your own torque wrench is the best final say in the matter.

Paul

 

Lot’s of great stories and advice on the whole lug nut thing.

Yes I for one use anti seize on all my studs/lug nuts.

Also I’ve seen shops barely start the lug nut or even throw it in the socket of the impact and start zipping away. Can you say screwed up cross threaded lug nuts!

I also don’t use a impact gun for putting on the lug nuts and for final check on how tight it is I use a torque wrench. Like Paul said....I’ve gone to tire places etc...when I needed them to do something and I insist they don’t use a impact gun. Sometimes I’ve had places get mad at me but I don’t care. Not they’re car or truck...it’s mine. I’m paying the bill.

Depending on what I’m working on and if possible...I take the rims/tires in. I put them on and off the car/truck myself. Which I’m doing this weekend or early next week. I have brand new aluminum slots coming. Taking the chrome wagon wheels off. I wanted aluminum slots originally when I bought rims but they where not being made right at that time and I couldn’t find a decent set of originals.

Talk about torque....I had a ‘47 Power Wagon. Only 5 lug nuts on each wheel but the lug nuts where either 1 3/4 or 1 1/2 size lug nuts. First time I went to take the wheels off to have the rims restored and new tires put on...couldn’t get a single lug nut to break loose. So I put the hydraulic jack handle on the 1/2” breaker bar and had to stand on top of it! Not good! Snapped the head off the breaker bar! Had to get a 3/4” drive breaker bar and still had to use the jack handle....got all the lug nuts off!

 

Way to overcome an obstacle! And you may even have gotten to buy some new tools while you were at it. Always a success with new tools!

To earlier comments, at least in the 4wd versions, the F350's also used the smaller 1/2" thread wheel studs. I was surprised the first time I took a wheel off of my '79 to find that it had 1/2-ton size lug studs.
But at least that was better than the 1/2t GM trucks and Blazers that had six lugs, but were only using 7/16" size. Guess it was common practice then to use what we would now consider woefully undersized studs. But at least the five lug 1/2" Ford products rarely failed except when they were loose first. We used to get a lot of Chevy trucks into the shop with multiple busted wheel studs. Maybe it stemmed from them coming loose too, but with the smaller size the torque value was much lower too. Might have been the real problem when used hard off-road or for carrying heavier loads.

Nowadays though the lug nuts are monsters compared to the old days.

Paul