Couldn't be clearer. This is lug nuts not a Lunar Mission. Tighten em down and forget em.

Maybe they will last longer if you lube them with Amzoil.

 

As far back as I can remember I have used anti-seize on all my lug nuts. Not only do I use it on the threads, I also put a little on the tapered part of each nut and on any part of the hub that contacts the wheel. I also tighten the nuts once only, and only occasionally use a torque wrench. After tightening thousands of nuts over the years with a torque wrench I can now fairly easily gauge when a nut is tight enough.
So far I have never had a nut come loose or had a wheel seize on the hub, not even after many Canadian salty winters.

 

I'm with you Mexstan. For years and years I tightened by hand and never ever had one come loose. I do use an impact wrench now though. THe only thing I ever put anti seize on iis the rear hub, between the axle and the hub. OTherwise, I've never used anti seize either. Never used it during the first 25 years of life in Northern Ohio either. But, I don't guess it could hurt.

 

The old tighten with a impact and 135 foot lbs was ok until NEW metals and types of metal used now.That was ok in the 50s/60s/70s etc.But now is a new era and a torque wrench to proper specs is really the only safe way to go.In fact in the 70s and 80s there were problems.Saw several motor homes loose rear wheels due to improper torque.

 

I use Never-Seize (Marine Grade) on more things than I can think of right now around this place. But, when it comes to wheel studs I use it very sparingly because of the dust and mud. Just a little is all you need.

 

I use a little on the studs, and a thin film on the hub to avoid the wheels getting stuck on a cold rainy night on the side of the road 40 miles the other side of Hooterville.
I always use a torque wrench (140 lb/ft on the lugs) but not on the oil drain plug.

 

As I read some of the info covered I will need to say that I as well use anti-seize on the lug and stud.
That being said, If you go to most engineering books you will find a part that covers the "Effect of Lubrication on Torque"
That said, all that think it makes no difference on torque are wrong. From the books it talks about :This is just one listing given in the book. FWIW

1/2 stud 13 TPI
no lube 121 fp
sae 20 oil 90 fp
white grease 79 fp
dry moly film 66 fp
graphite & oil 62 fp

So you could over torque the stud if you did oil or really over torque it with graphite & oil.
Will it break???? if on a breaking of 150 fp and you use oil to torque it to 121 it is really close to breaking. I would not want to drive on them.
I do not know what the studs are on the new Dodge 03 but on my old Dodge 96 I had a chart for it to show what torque to use with the lube I was using.
Do a test, get some bolts like I did and test torque dry to breaking and then test oil to breaking the oil will break at a lower torque because the oil helps overcome friction.
This is info from a book and for me proven true but take it for what it is worth to you, use it or not!

Jon

 

Sort of meaningless as 13 TPI is known to be super weak. Do that with a finer thread and good material and there would be some differences. The point of adding lube is higher clamping force without the twisting force on the stud.

Lube with what you want, you have to be a strong guy to twist off a dual wheel lug with a four way. Generally the four way will bend first. I carry a 1 inch T bar and socket to tighten mine if on the road. That is about a 3 1/3 foot bar.

 

If you choose to use a "never-seize" compound on your wheel studs, torque the wheel nuts to the lower torque specification given. Typicall the manual will give the wheel nut torque specs as 120 - 150 lb-ft. Use 120 lb-ft and no more.

Or, you can do a simple test using the "turn of nut" method. First, on a dry thread, bring your wheel nuts to a snug tight position. Use a calibrated torque wrench to tighten the nuts and roughly measure the amount of rotation the wrench makes to achieve the desired torque. Then remove the nuts and lubricate the threads with never-seize. Upon tightening the wheel nuts, bring them again to the snug tight state and then rotate the wrench the same amount as you measured in the dry state. The wheels studs will now have the proper elongation resulting in the correct clamping force.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Haulin_in_Dixie
[B]Sort of meaningless as 13 TPI is known to be super weak. Do that with a finer thread and good material and there would be some differences.


The bolt in reference is a SAE Grade 8 150,000 PSI Bolt med carbon alloy steel.
Look at the steel and grade along with thread.
A 2" Corse thread 4.5 TPI is not a weak bolt and it is corse thread with 8200 fp torque.
Steel is the big thing not TPI.

1/2 13 TPI
SAE 0-1-2 74,000 psi low carbon steel 47 fp
SAE Grade 8 150,000 PSI Bolt med carbon alloy steel 121 fp

Both are 13 tpi and look at the difference.

Fine thread increases by about 9% But the uses of lube effect on torque stays about the same.
The point is that across the board all thread torque is effected with the use of lube.

Jon

 

Thank You
Someone got the point.

Good Point on the turn in I use that a lot for other stuff.
Jon

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Haulin_in_Dixie
[B]Sort of meaningless as 13 TPI is known to be super weak. Do that with a finer thread and good material and there would be some differences.

The reason why a course thread pitch has a lower axial force capacity than a fine thread pitch for any given diameter of fastener is due to a smaller root diameter. The larger the fastener diameter gets the less this effect is noticed.

 

Using lubricants on fasteners is ALWAYS recommended ! The laymans def. on torqueing fasteners is "Applying sufficient pressure to the load to resist loosening from the intended work,while not or never stretching the fastener beyond it's elasticity point", The key word is STRETCH. All fasteners must be stretched to maintain their clamping force and using a torque wrench is an INDIRECT way of measuring or accomplishing the desired effect at best. The only direct means is to measure the amount of stretch or enlongation we impose on the shank of the bolt or stud . This is common on large marine diesels with a tool that looks like a C-clamp with a dial indicator imbedded in the end. Being observed while the torque is being applied to the fastener. Automotive technology utilizes sampling data and industry specs to accomplish this thru the indirect measurement of twisting force applied to the to nut or bolt head get the desired stretch. So,lubes will vary the amount of stretch in an increasing way as much as dry rusty surfaces will vary it in a decreasing way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wheel studs a commonly spec'd to handle way more stretch(with still being able to return to the origanal dimension) than is required for the application due to the human factor(us) IMHO lubricating fasteners is the "best known engineering practice" for the exposure we intend to operate our trucks in. Sorry for the long windedness , but , I've been in conversations many times in my trade on how high tech a torque stick to use for a crude an indirect way to load a fastener to it's specified stretch. It has as much to do with what the dial say's as what a experianced set a hands can tell ...................
Mark T.

 

I have a few books that cover torque and they have wet torque and dry torque. Most ALL wet torque is less then dry torque. Now a torque stick just goes back to the old way of doing it, like you say of mesureing the bolt length to get the holding force needed, and gives a torque that will give you that.
So if you are using a bolt with oil you will stretch it using the torque set for dry.
In some listings the bolts are going to be in oil and they give you a torque based on that which is less then dry.
If you oil all bolts how do you use the 20 different types of Locktite that list to apply on clean DRY bolts and nuts?

 

lOCKTITE in itself is a lubricant.the last I heard .