impact wrench

Are you sure your lug nuts aren't rusted onto the studs? You can borrow, rent or buy a much more powerful impact wrench but you might end up just breaking off the stud.

I'll bet the socket gets hot, that's the clue that energy is being wasted. Get a good 4-way and stand on it.

I have a CHEAP (HF) impact wrench and am well satisfied with it. I doubt it would stand up long under day in and day out use, but...

Anyhow, a friend brought me his van that someone had nailed the lug nuts and he'd snapped a lug wrench trying to change a tire. The impact wrench pounded on a few of them for a while before they came, but they all loosened. (He then re-tightened them by hand to a more reasonable level...)

I had a lug nut on my pickup that someone probably cross-threaded and then drove it home with an impact wrench. It wouldn't come for ANYTHING. We put a big impact wrench on it and snapped the stud (fortunately, studs are cheap and usually easy to replace...).

As to you question about oil, two or three drops is usually enough. If you put in too much, it won't stay in it for long... The excess will come spraying out the tool exhaust and usually up your sleeve, in your face or in some other "convenient" place... Air tool oil is cheap and a properly oiled tool is a heck of a lot more powerful than one that is dry...

Jerry

I have a cheapo 1/2" impact wrench, won't take off lug nuts either. A bigger one works just fine, same socket. Some day I'll get a good one ..

GWE

I see a couple things that were done in this discussion that are big no no's

1.140 Ft/lbs is over excessive pressures to apply to the studs ,all you need is 90 Ft/Lbs and when you do apply this pressure you do not use the power of the impact wrench to apply it ,it's fine to use the impact wrench to get the lugs down ,but to finish to tighten them you should use either a torque bar which is basically a short extension bar made from spring steel that has a predetermined torque rating that will cause the bar to twist when it gets to the torque rating and keep it from overtightening, any auto store has these in stock and are avaible thru sears and harbour freight and the second thing you can use is a torgue wrench which you can use either the click type or the old beam type ,I really recommend the click type . 2.Using anti seize is not to be used because it can cause the lug nuts to come loose and I have seen it happen ,the propper way to do this is when you have the lugs and wheel off take a wire brush (you can also use a wire wheel on a drill also)to your lugs and clean them up real good ,either use air or spray parts cleaner to remove the rust dust so you can inspect the lugs threads (don't use any spray that will leave a residual behind ) if there are any signs of excessive wear or you really cant tell just goto a parts store and ask them to show you a new lug so you can see the threads that will tell you right away if you need to replace the lugs or if they are ok ,and to check the lugnuts just spin them on the lugs by hand they should go on freely if they stop at all check them to make sure there are no foreign object in them or the threads are damaged , if damaged replace. Now when you are ready to put the wheel back on put the lugnuts on dry ,thats how they are intended to be put on so they got a good grip and lock down tight ,and before anyone starts flaming I have years of experience doing automotive work and an associates degree in auto diesel technology as well ,and you will not believe the times I have seen people put anti seize on lugs cause thats easier to do ,one time I actually pulled two lugnuts off a car with my barehand the other three didn't take very much to pull them off ,the only places that antiseize should be used is on spark plug threads and the sliders of the calipers and not the threads just the place the caliper slides on the bolts . Just remember antiseize is a lubricant and keeps things from sticking ,do you really want to use it on something your life depends on? hope this has been very helpful

Well in my case I did use a 1/2" drive torque wrench which clicks at the proper torque setting, I did what trucks manual says and set them to 140 ftlbs and I did use anti-seize, and the nuts won't come off and that is my problem. I have seen and experienced lug nuts coming loose on aluminum wheels and that was because they were not all evenly torqued and re-torqued after 100 miles or so.

Are you talking about adding oil to the air inlet? If so that makes sense but my gun has an additional oil inlet which you have to remove a plug to get to, I assume this oil stays in the gun.

It reduces the required torque but will not cause the nuts to come loose. Obviously there are plenty of applications that have lubricants on the threads and the nuts don't spin off. Quite a few tire mechanics use anti-seize on truck studs and the wheels aren't flying off all over the nation's highways. When the nut is torqued, the stud is elongated and the resulting tension is what keeps the lugnut on, not the friction against the threads.

Your 140 foot-pounds with anti-seize = 160 or so if it were dry. Any lubricant will give a false reading on torque. Unless your manual stated

160 - 170 foot-pounds of torque, then you are off.

proper torque setting, I did what trucks manual says and set them to

140 ftlbs and I did use anti-seize, and the nuts won't come off and that is my problem. I have seen and experienced lug nuts coming loose on aluminum wheels and that was because they were not all evenly torqued and re-torqued after 100 miles or so.Your 140 foot-pounds with anti-seize = 160 or so if it were dry. Any lubricant will give a false reading on torque. Unless your manual stated 160 - 170 foot-pounds of torque, then you are off.<

Here is a pretty good article on the subject. It appears the anti-seize is the worst. Who knows for sure how much tension is on these bolts? Might be as much as 210 foot-pound equivelant.

dennis in nca

Er, that can't possibly be true, think ball screws which have very low friction on the threads and can be readily driven by axial loads. If the friction on the threads is reduced sufficiently by some lubricant, when coupled with the vibration and rolling stresses in the wheel it is quite likely that the lug nuts will slowly creep looser.

What would usually prevent this is the tapered or flat seat against the wheel surface which people usually don't put the anti-seize on. The high friction coupled with the large surface area and large radius all combine to provide quite a bit of resistance to rotation.

Pete C.

All I am saying is that is what the manufacturer wants. I agree, I checked a few torque charts on the web for particular stud sizes and it is high compared to them but that is what they call for.

You're right. I should have said dry friction is not always necessary to hold a fastener on. A lubricated assembly will still resist turning when it's torqued down if there is sufficient torque. The bolt/stud is deformed (stretched by torquing down the nut). That's not the case in a free-running ball screw. The thread geometry is also different.

I agree the amount of anti-seize should be very minimal and only applied to the stud. I think completely dry assembly, especially on older trucks, could lead to stud damage from the excessively high torque required to remove the lugnuts.

I always use wheel bearing grease on the studs, to prevent rusting. Grease doesn't really lubricate under such pressure when stationary. Never had one loosen, in 40 years. Or rust. Never tried anti-seize on wheel lugs. Nor does it seem necessary, given that ordinary grease works.

What keeps the nut from backing off is mostly the rim bending, not just the stud stretching. In a steel rim, the area around each stud is hemispherical, a dome with a conical hole in the center. The lug nut has a conical front that jams into the conical hole, and as the nut is tightened, the dome becomes flatter as the metal deforms elastically. It's this spring action that maintains force on the lug nut, preventing creeping under vibration. The mechanical advantage of conical nut driven into conical hole also helps to raise the torque needed to override friction.

The key is to have enough spring force over a great enough range of distances that the nut never escapes contact with the rim, preventing rotation. Even the slightest rotation will cause loosening over time.

As for aluminum rims, I haven't looked closely at one, but there has to be a spring in there somewhere, and the stud probably isn't long enough to do the job by itself.

The studs holding the head to the engine block are an example of studs long enough that elastic stretch of the studs is sufficient, but wheel rims aren't nearly that wide or precise.

Joe Gwinn

Having used Campbell Hausfeld exclusively for a couple of years, I just bought an Ingersoll Rand 231HA. Now everything I tighten turns into shrapnel. Still learning how suddenly important the power control knob is. my advice is to go here:

spend 97.00 on one vs. 45.00 for the CH, you're getting 5 times the gun and power.

Indeed. Ive been using anti-sieze for well over 40 yrs..and in all that time, on all manner of rolling stock..have never had a loose lug nut that was caused by anti- sieze. And my 110lb wife of 30 yrs can change any tire with a 4 way without flagging down a crew wagon.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner