2 Instances of Stripped FoMoCo Racing Front Wheel Studs - Advice?

[Pitt Stang]

A few weeks ago, I was taking my front wheel off and one of the wheel lug nuts (open Ford Racing nut) was really hard to get off. The attached photo with the ruler is what the extended Ford Racing stud looked like.

I chalked it up to the garage who inspected my car cross threading or over torquing the nut. I replaced it with a new hub assembly.

Today at a TNiA, I was changing to my track tires/wheels and the OTHER side had a stripped wheel stud. (2nd photo with no ruler). 2 weeks ago, I had my track tires on and off the car and I made sure (as always) to hand thread the nuts, hand tighten the nuts and torque to 100 ft lbs.

I have the other new wheel hub with extended stud which I will install, but I’m curious if anyone has had similar issues. Maybe the garage weakened the stud that failed today or is it possible that I’m putting too much torque 100 ft lbs when I am retorquing at the track?

A few people said tonight not to retorque when I get off the track when the wheels are hot. Wait till I’m just about to go out on the next session and retorque then.

Looking for any guidance or suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[ajaquilante]

Are those 1/2" or 14mm studs? On the 1/2" I'm typically doing 90lb-ft
I'm assuming you run at Pitt Race? Were they both on the same hub?-( Edit- never mind, needed to read closer) Which side had the problem first? Run over any debris? I had a funny occurrence at Pitt Race earlier this year where I had 3 lug nuts gall on the same wheel. Looked very similar to your second picture, but on a M12x1.5 on a corvette. I figured it was debris from an inner fender liner that I ejected at the transition of the new/old track. Although I wonder if it could be dirt/fine debris. Its always interesting running in the rain there as the car is covered in what I think is tire dust due to its very grippy nature and wearing down of the rain tire and the rain sticks it to the car.

 

[johnjamesmiller]

Not clear to me if you are retorquing each session. I’ve always been told to just retorque once per track day - that doing it in between sessions will break or strip studs.

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

Yeah retorquing when hot is a no no. But if your wheels and studs are cool enough to touch before the next session they can be retorqued without fear of them over torquing.

but sounds like the OP is waiting for them to cool so that’s not likely the culprit.

 

[Pitt Stang]

These are the 1/2” extended ARP studs. I have been retorquing in between each track session and have sometimes been retorquing when the wheel is hot.

Sounds like that is not a good idea.

I’ve been using 100 ft lb since that is in the manual. Maybe I’ll go down to 90 ft lb.

 

[TMSBOSS]

I clean and chase the threads if necessary when I have the wheels off. Usually once a year. A soft brush does wonders in keeping the crud out of the threads. I run the hardened open lug nuts from OP Mustang. Going on 10 years on the Boss. Third set of lug nuts.

 

[zajac]

I have had two galled nuts on the front of my tracked Mustang. One of which I was able to use a high torque impact gun to finally get it off just a small turn at a time. The 2nd one could Not be removed with any impact gun and instead of snapping the stud off, it spun the stud in the hub! Fortunately, I did not have to cut the wheel off? There was just enough room between the hub and wheel inner hub face of the five spoked wheel to get a die grinder cutoff-wheel disc in and cut the stud off. My rule now is never try to remove any nut off a stud until the wheel/rotor/hub has sufficiently cooled down...never, never try with wheel/rotor/hub Hot from just coming off the tr5ack. Lesson learned!

 

[xr7]

Would using a longer nut with more threads engaged help spread the load?

 

[Pitt Stang]

Interesting that on the Vorshlag website, for their S197 wheel nuts, they recommend:

• Recommended torque on the lug nuts is 85 lb-ft, using a light coating of anti-seize

 

[KazarS197]

Nice to meet you yesterday. I'm thinking it still could be the hot torquing. The only other thing I can think of is your torque wrench - is the calibration maybe off - how old, what brand, has it ever been dropped, is it always stored at zero torque setting.

 

[Pitt Stang]

Nice to meet you yesterday. I'm thinking it still could be the hot torquing. The only other thing I can think of is your torque wrench - is the calibration maybe off - how old, what brand, has it ever been dropped, is it always stored at zero torque setting.

I was thinking torque wrench, as well. Craftsman probably 15 yrs old, always stored at lowest setting.

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

Hot torquing is the most likely culprit. I used to drift and there you don’t always have time between sessions to let things cool before you go back out, and you used up tires so they have to be changed. The result? Even being as careful as you can wheel studs get stripped fairly regularly. The skill is in recognizing a thread that’s looking suspect and replacing that stud before it’s too late.

 

[blacksheep-1]

I recently had a mix up of 18mm and 1/2 in nuts in the same box, one will go on and bugger up the threads, the other will just spin, they use the 1/2 on the S197s and the 18mm on the S550. This is why I go through every nut on race day and mark them. This is why I use a full length nut that is made of steel, open ended and is red anodized in color that can't be mixed up. Even still, sometimes, it's like magic, they still strip once in a blue moon.

In any case, don't discard those hubs, you can rebuild them.

S197 extended wheel stud options

So I'm ordering ARP ( 100-7722 ) extended studs for my Boss. cause they seem to be the go to studs. 10-12 week wait !! Has anyone tried Moroso wheel studs ?https://www.moroso.com/press-in-wheel-stud46185/

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