Left hand thread lugs - stay or go?

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eduardostewart

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Hi guys,

so my father and i are restoring his 70 Duster. we're in the tear down stage and this weekend we'll be getting into the wheel and brakes. Looking down the road - do the LH lugs serve an actual purpose? Should any/all the lugs be replaced? if so, should they all just be replaced with RH?
 
They serve no real function other than to confuse mechanics. I replaced all of mine with right hand studs.
 
keep 'em LHT. no reason to change them and you may damage the studs removing them.
 
take 'em once to the wrong guy and he will be sure that you replace them by twisting off 3 before he realizes they are LH :D
 
That is how my headaches started. After buying the car I took it to a brake guy and I wanted to change the studs at the same time. He took out one on the front and ruined the hole (and the hub) - just like what the above guys say. I say if you have 5 good in the front and 5 good in the back, just leave them.

When you start to make changes like disc brakes later on, then you can change them. If you must change them, read the threads on this site and know the proper procedure.
 
it's a 70 340, so she has discs on the front. i'm used to live axle trucks so this will be new to me
 
I just did brakes,rotors and wheel bearings on my recently purchased 70 Duster and I made the choice of keeping them. Someone had changed the rear drivers side to RH which I didn't check till after going through the work of keeping the front correct. So now I'm putting those back to LH. If I would've known that before I did the front my car would've been all RH studs....Oh well ...
 
Similar story to the one from g413 above.
Took my original '69 340 Swinger in for tires and they twisted 3 LH studs off the rear drum before I could stop them.
My current '69 Dart build will be all RH.
 
g413 said:
That is how my headaches started. After buying the car I took it to a brake guy and I wanted to change the studs at the same time. He took out one on the front and ruined the hole (and the hub) -
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You have to cut off the swage. Rusty claims you can use a 5/8 hole saw You can buy cutters for them.

Are you planning on upgrading the brakes? Either to larger drums or disk? Id say if you don't need special nuts for your wheels, and might go to bigger or disk brakes, leave them until you need to bother with them

When / if you go to a tire store RAISE HELL. Make it CLEAR that you expect the mechanic to PAY ATTENTION, and that if they ruin any studs THEY will pay for them.
 
318willrun said:
take 'em once to the wrong guy and he will be sure that you replace them by twisting off 3 before he realizes they are LH :D
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This is what happened on my Coronet when I owned it. Then I had to show the guy how to press new studs in...

Ditch them unless your a number matching, NOS, date code kind of guy.
 
Why change them? If it don't need it, don't do it. If it works don't fix it.
Then too, many of us have gotten past the lefts and put in rights.
Something about rotational force was reason for LH as I understand. Maybe someone can expand on that.

Question:
Do ring gears use left hand threaded bolts?
 
i know there is a lug here and there that are already broken off. pops can't remember why. anyone got a good link to show how to take them out in case we need to?
 
Daves69 said:
Something about rotational force was reason for LH as I understand. Maybe someone can expand on that.
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It was a leftover from knock off rims. The large, single nut was always left hand thread on the left side of the car because the theory was that the rotational force of the wheel spinning could loosen the nut.

With a large, single knock off that might have some merit, but it was carried over to the smaller lugs that aren't at the center of the wheel by Mopar and a few others early on. There was an article on it somewhere that actually tested it, I forget where I saw it. Bottom line is, if the lug nuts are properly torqued it makes no difference at all. If the lugs are left loose, the RH thread lugs on the left side of the car can loosen further. But if you torque them properly, it's not an issue. And of course, no modern manufacturer uses LH lugs now, so there are millions of cars on the road with all RH threads.

It's far more likely that you, or someone else, will forget the LH threads and ruin them, and possibly the hubs, by breaking them off trying to turn them the wrong way. If some are already broken, I'd just replace them all with RH lugs and be done with it.
 
IIRC< the ring gear bolts are either LH or fine pitch. I had to buy a special tap to chase a hole once. still got it.
 
The scenario goes like this...

Your wife/girlfriend is borrowing the car for some reason. She gets a flat, and has AAA come out to change the tire. The gorilla driving the towtruck goes to break the nuts loose before he jacks the car up and they just ain't going. He figures some monkey put them on with an air impact wrench at pep boys. Inspiration strikes the gorilla, the lightbulb flickers dimly above his head right before it buzzes and pops sending the magic electronic smoke out to pollute the atmosphere and cause more global warming, submerging all those insignificant island nations in the south pacific. He grabs his breaker bar and section of pipe to break them loose and shears the studs off.

Ditch them. If you don't, you will certainly pay for it with a screwed up ride. You will also have to live with the guilt for causing untold millions to become homeless as ocean levels rise, and hurricanes ravage the east coast.

Such is the butterfly effect of failing to make your car better. Bad CARma.
 
Ottmundr said:
The scenario goes like this...

Your wife/girlfriend is borrowing the car for some reason. She gets a flat, and has AAA come out to change the tire. The gorilla driving the towtruck goes to break the nuts loose before he jacks the car up and they just ain't going. He figures some monkey put them on with an air impact wrench at pep boys. Inspiration strikes the gorilla, the lightbulb flickers dimly above his head right before it buzzes and pops sending the magic electronic smoke out to pollute the atmosphere and cause more global warming, submerging all those insignificant island nations in the south pacific. He grabs his breaker bar and section of pipe to break them loose and shears the studs off.

Ditch them. If you don't, you will certainly pay for it with a screwed up ride. You will also have to live with the guilt for causing untold millions to become homeless as ocean levels rise, and hurricanes ravage the east coast.

Such is the butterfly effect of failing to make your car better. Bad CARma.
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i believe you have won this one, good sir.
 
Both of my A-bodies have ONE wheel with LH studs. In both cases it is the left rear. This is guaranteed to confuse the monkeys at the tire store. It is particularly a problem if you want or need special lug nuts for mag wheels or even the optional bolt-through wheel covers. I have already decided to change them to all RH when the opportunity arises. The "folk knowledge" about Mopar LH thread lugs is almost extinct in the world at large. There is just no point in bucking the trend.

PS: I have 10 new drum brake LH studs in the original packaging if anyone is determined to retain the configuration.
 
eduardostewart said:
i would opt to get rid of them, anyone got a link on proper procedure?
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The few times I have done this, I have knocked them out using a few good bumps with the BFH. Someone on here is probably going to shout at me saying to quit doing that, I'ma gonna damage bearings or some such, but I've never seen a problem from it.
 
i won't know what it looks like until i get in there, but if it's anything like my TJs hubs, which i doubt, we would make a tool out of a bolt, nut, washer, and a small piece of pipe. you take the head of the bolt, place it behind the flange the lug goes into, with a nut down close to the head, then cut a piece of pipe. you could then move the nut to tighten the piece of pipe behind the flange for support while knocking the lug out

but like i said, i'm assuming this doesn't apply here
 
If it works why change it Imo. Im all for keeping things simple but its not hard to remember which side has which
 
cletus said:
The few times I have done this, I have knocked them out using a few good bumps with the BFH. Someone on here is probably going to shout at me saying to quit doing that, I'ma gonna damage bearings or some such, but I've never seen a problem from it.
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Same here. They should come out without any huge amount of drama. New ones should probably be pressed in, but I have also used a heavy nut and washer to pull them in with an impact gun, just don't go over 100 ft/lb.

Pulling the rear axles out, or removing the front hubs is not a difficult job, and that being said, getting the old studs pressed out, and new studs pressed in is quite obviously the safest/best method.
 
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