Tuesday, July 31, 2012

My Wife’s Sister is in to Car Racing


My wife’s sister is in to car racing!

My wife’s sister is in to car racing, and seems to be quite good at it. She is a better mechanic then many mechanics that run their own shop. She is great when I have a question about cars and maintenance.

She was prepping her car before a race and she was checking the wheels and the brakes on each wheel.  She was putting the wheels back on and she tightened the lugs down with a torque wrench. That caught me off guard. I just tighten the lug nuts way down. I asked her about it and she said they should be tightened down with a torque wrench so: you do not over torque the nuts on the bolts so they will not shear, and so you can get them off easily when you need to.

She said 12” to 13” tire/rim wheels (5 lug) : 50 ft-lbs min to 75 ft-lbs max.
On 14” and 15” tire/rim wheels (5 lug) : 90 ft-lbs min to 120 ft-lbs max .
On 15” and 16” tire/rim wheels (6 and 8 lug) : 90 ft-lbs min to 120 ft-lbs max.
She had a little chart in her tool box with the torque ranges.
She also said that when you tighten them down, you should tighten one, skip one and tighten that one, skip the next and tighten that one. Do every other one till all are tight to the right torque.
She also said you use a torque wrench to tighten a bolt only. You will trash the wrench if you use it to unscrew nuts. 

I have to say I had not really thought about it…I just tightened them down so they would not come off.

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