overtorqued wheel bolts: what to do

[art]

I haven't found an impact gun that will torque to what the manufacturers have stated that they will. I have found that with a unsteady extension on a breaker bar 100 lbs of torque can feel like quite a bit. I'm not saying that they weren't but I overtorque just about everything I put a torque wrench on intentionally if the pieces I'm working with can handle it.

 

[Volfandt]

Get a 3/4" breaker bar and socket to fit your lug nut then use a good long cheater bar to gain more leverage. That should get it. I broke a 1/2" breaker bar trying to break loose the rear lugs on my ole TE20, the 3/4" worked.
Neither my pneumatic nor electric impact tools would do it either.
You definitely want them tight....

 

[Jw5875]

One method I used (working by myself a lot) to break bolts / nuts loose on wheels etc: Put the end of the cheater bar on a floor or bottle jack. You can usually break them loose in two or three strokes of the jack handle.

This method saves your back and knuckles!!!!


JW5875

 

[Bob_Young]

If you're determined to loosen them, a 3/4"drive socket and a long cheater bar will do it. But you want them tight so why bother with them? Like Art says, I'd much rather have them too tight than too loose. Any stretching to the bolt has already been done, so leave them alone and just check them periodically to see if they're still tight. In the meantime, buy the 3/4" drive socket wrench and find a cheater bar and set them on the shelf until you need them....which might not be until you need new tires.

One thing the impact wrench probably did do was torque the lugs evenly, which is half the reason for setting torque values on fastener sets to begin with.

Fixing things that aren't broken is a good way to create real problems in my experience.
Bob

 

[TalonDancer]

More is not always better.

IOW if 100ft/lbs is the spec., then 110ft/lbs or 150ft/lbs is not better.

The torque spec on any fastener has two goals: making sure that fastener ...
1 - is tight enough to not come loose under usage, and
2 - still has enough reserve tensile strength to take additional strain.

Bolts are actually weakened each time they are stretched a little by being over torqued. The most likely time for a stretched wheel bolt to fail is when the wheel is pulled/pushed from the side under heavy load. If the tensile strength of a wheel bolt is exceeded it will fail catastrophically -- the head will pop off.

IMO over torqued wheel bolts are actually more dangerous than ones that are under spec. I'll notice the under spec wheel bolt(s) during routine maintenance (daily, every 50 hours, etc.) and tighten them to spec before they become a serious problem. But over torqued wheel bolts are a hidden risk.

In my mechanic's workshop, an over torqued bolt is scrap metal

Talon Dancer

 

[mswlogo]

What I found is Impact Wrenchs can really overtorque. But they also do a great job at getting them off without damaging anything. Constant force versus the hammering effect from the impact wrench is just different.

 

[sevilla]

Hi, today, trying to loosen one of the wheel bolts I broke the head off a 1/2inch MATCO extension but the bolts did not move. Probably I'll wait to find a 3/4 inch breaker bar.
P.S. I spoke with the dealer this morning: yes they overtorque the bolts, but just a little, to make sure they stay in place....
Thanks to everybody.

 

[TalonDancer]

...P.S. I spoke with the dealer this morning: yes they overtorque the bolts, but just a little, to make sure they stay in place....
Thanks to everybody.

I guess your dealer knows more than Kubota does about how much torque it takes to make sure your wheels "stay in place".

BTW if my dealer told me that, I'd ask _exactly_ how many ft/lbs "just a little" overtorque is.

Talon Dancer

ps I'd also ask him to replace the extension I just broke trying to remove a wheel bolt that he SHOULD have torqued to specs. Hence within the tensile strength of a 1/2" MATCO extension.

 

[Chessie]

I swap from R4's to turfs winter to summer and back again. The first time I needed a 3/4" drive breaker bar with a 10' extension pipe to get all the rear ones loose. The special part was they popped loose quite violently. My guess is that at some point tires were falling off tractors so now the dealers put it on with 500 Ft pounds of force. The other special thing was that the 2 studs that were supposed to stay in the hub and just have the nut come off ended up having the stud assembly come completely out. I put it back in with a lot of thread lock and it has behaved since then.

I strongly suggest using tools that have a free replacement policy in case you manage to find any stress limits in the breaker bar or the socket. I attempted to do it first with a 1/2" drive set but I pretzeled the breaker bar with the torgue amplifier. 3/4" did the trick
Jeff

 

[megaboz]

One method I used (working by myself a lot) to break bolts / nuts loose on wheels etc: Put the end of the cheater bar on a floor or bottle jack. You can usually break them loose in two or three strokes of the jack handle.

This method saves your back and knuckles!!!!


JW5875

I agree with you, use a jack. A good scissor jack will work too. I've used this technique getting bolts loose on a brake caliper for a car. The nice part is that you can steady even pressure. Provides a better chance of not breaking anything or rounding bolt heads off.

As several other people said, over tightening does not make it better. How many of us actually broke a bolt when tightening? "Just a 1/4 more, @#@$!!! Now, how do I get that out of there?