Left handed lug nuts?

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Had a blowout on the freeway when I was 18. Somehow I got the lug nuts off fine, but couldn't get them back on! Had a cop pull over to help and he couldn't figure it out either. Then the dispatcher called and said "Wait... What year is it again? 1966? Turn them backwards."
 
If lug nuts are torqued properly wheels don't usually come off. In the Fire Service, FDNY, after a tire change, the lug nuts were retorqued a week later. We didn't have a torque wrench, just made sure they were tight.
 
If lug nuts are torqued properly wheels don't usually come off. In the Fire Service, FDNY, after a tire change, the lug nuts were retorqued a week later. We didn't have a torque wrench, just made sure they were tight.
If lug nuts are torqued properly wheels don't come off.
 

Yep....still have them all the way back to 1955.....funny story of my dad and I in mom's Valient when I had my begineers license....we had a flat on the left rear - dad said son.....now's a good time to teach you how to change a flat.....open's the trunk and hands me the tire tool while he gets the jack out....I'm trying to loosen and finally put my foot on it.....bing....it snaps off...thought he was going to smack me.....he laughs....and say I'm sorry son....that's a righty loosie.....whoosh....
 
I replaced all of my LHT lugs with RHT ones years ago. I do all my work also. I just didn't like the idea of LHT lugs.
 
There were MANY uses of left hand threads, by other brands too, on cars and trucks, NOT just Mopar.
Mopar just stuck with them longer than most.
But let's be honest, they haven't been common for fifty years or so, so why would I think a twenty or thirty something tire buster would be familiar?

My 62 has 3"studs, so obviously rht, but i have one car that still has left studs on the left side..... and three cars that have left hand thread BOLTS holding the wheels on.
Nobody but me touches the wheels on those cars.

I have two Studebakers, both have left hand lug nuts on the driver's side. I think old Fords are the same, and I'm sure others, too.

My 56 Plymouth not only has left hand threads on the left, right hand on the right, it has studs and lug nuts up front, lug bolts in the rear. That's because a 56 Plymouth V8 has 11 inch Dodge drum brakes up front, and six cylinder Plymouth 10 inch drum brakes on the rear. (Fury had 11 inch all around, six cylinders had 10 inch all around.) Chrysler didn't bother changing what each sized drum used to attached the wheels to them.
 
The thing I came across on this subject with lug nuts and studs is when converting to Willwood front disc brakes the lugs are 7/16 on the front but factory on the back are 1/2 so any tire shop would most likely f that up.. as others have said just bring the them wheels
 
Next on the agenda, we can talk about wonderful Mopar oddities like ball and trunnion u-joints, fluid drive, dual leading shoe drum brakes and push button automatics.
 
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