I'm trying to order all new lug nuts for my bus. My local tire guy says he can get the too-tight ones off if I bring the bus down to him, so i want to have him install new nuts all round. 1980 MCI MC-5C, stud centered, tapered lug nuts, I need to know the stud diameter and thread pitch for the fronts, and for the rear studs. I need to buy the inner lugs and outer nuts for the rear duals, left hand thread on the left side of the bus and right hand thread on the right hand side of the bus.
I am flabbergasted that I googled for half an hour and could not find this out. Help appreciated!
Brian
Great Googly Moogly!
So you don't know the thread diameter and pitch on the studs either, eh? I don't feel so lonely somehow...
??? ??? ;D
Brian
Brian,
I've never owned an MCI, but I would think the pitch is SAE and the fronts are 1 inch, the rears are usually 5/8 also using 1 inch nuts. Get the length right on the rears. You should replace the studs in the hubs, they get the stress, not the nuts.
Hold up there...I'm not a bus guy but I don't think those numbers sound right...lemme do some checking.
Does your tire guy think that they are different than a 18 wheeler?
Here is what we found on our DL3 (I would assume yours would be the same).
Truck studs didn't work for us. We tried, and tried, and tried. Finally we ordered them from MCI. Ours were specialty, but I don't know the specs. Why don't you just try calling MCI tech support? They will know....
God bless,
John
FWIW, truck studs are 3/4" (rear) and steer 1-1/8"...from memory!
Call Luke he will know the right size and is 1/10th price of MCI
John
Quote from: johns4104s on September 01, 2009, 06:45:03 PM
Call Luke he will know the right size and is 1/10th price of MCI
John
That's a good idea. We ordered ours full price from price kingdom :'( :'( :'(.
God bless,
John
Brian,
Studs on the front will be 1-1/8-16 as is the outside thread of the inner nuts on the rear. The stud the inner nut screws onto in the rear will be 3/4-16.
Brian,
The reason I recomend Luke or Bill is that they know,
Alumminum wheels -one size
Steel wheels another size
Aluminum on the out side dual steel on the inside-another size
Both aluminum on the dual-another size
type of wheel-another size
It goes on and on,
Call Luke
John
Thanks very much, guys. the theory was that I would pop out to a local truck parts company this morning and have the bus at the tire shop getting the lugs replaced and torqued today or tomorrow, which lets the normal US based suppliers out. But I may have to put this off for a while, no need to rush. Bus isn't scheduled to go anywhere till October now.
Being in Hamilton, Ontario, which is a pretty decent industrial town, we actually have a very decent heavy vehicle support industry. It's probably good for me to start find out who the good guys are for normal support stuff.
Brian
Brian,
You will have great difficulty finding the studs you need,not impossible. I looked all over Chicargo, they were close but three threads short. Let us know how you make out.
So far I am only looking for lugs, not studs. With any luck at all the studs will be OK. But only taking the wheels off will let me actually check the studs, so we'll wait and see.
Brian
Brian,
The lug nuts are the same as those used for semis. Go to any decent truck repair place and they'll have both inner and outer nuts.
If you have aluminum rims on the rear, you'll need the long inner nuts. For steel wheels, use standard lug nuts.
If the nuts on the bus are not rusted and the threads dinged, you probably don't need all new, but that's your call.
A couple drops of oil in the threads of the nut will prevent this from happening again. Get yourself a good 1" impact wrench if you're going to be removing your own wheels.
craig
Craig...you should check out the other thread he started about being pissed off...turned into quite a discourse on torque, etc.
I think I'll pop over there now and see what's new!
Yeah, I read some of it.
Torque happens!
I stand by my previous post.
Well, my next door neighbour (long time heavy equipment/truck mechanic) loaned me his 1" impact gun, a couple of sockets, a 600 ft lb torque wrench, I screwed my shop air compressor up to 150 psi, and went at it. I had to take the rear outer off, so that I could get one of the rear inner nuts off, so that i could take it to the parts store to buy new ones. As recommended, they were standard 1 1/8" outers and 3/4" inners, and the store had them in stock. Lovely big new store, "Traction" chain, 69 cents each for the outers, and $1.33 for the inners, which I thought was very good. Also got those ugly green plastic pointers to visually check for movement.
Only the left side nuts were over-torqued. all but three of the rear inners were on very hard. the one at the front that broke my torque multiplier took 10 minutes of hammering, waiting between times for the compressor to recover to 150 psi. I was this close to getting the flame-wrench! All of the right hand nuts came off normally, so the issue was left hand thread related. None of the studs seemed damaged. A lot of work done today, but it's done.
All in all, putting new, plated, rust-free lugs on seems like a good idea, to be honest.
Brian
Good for you Brian!
Glad you got 'er all done.
PS did you try the hammer trick on that stubborn one?
No, I didn't - it wasn't my socket! I was tempted, I'll tell you that. I would let the gun run till the compressor started up, then stop till it was up and start again. took at least 10 minutes before it started to turn. I had my eye on my 2 lb ball pein and it was calling to me! some of the hardest to get off were the inner dual cone nuts, and you can't hammer on them to great effect.
Man, those flourescent green plastic lug tabs are ugly, I don't know how long they are going to stay on. On the race cars we sometime use modelers enamel paint to put a witness line on non-self locking nuts, that might work too. A bit fussy for a bus, mind you. On my race cars, the wheel nuts are either self locking, or they have a mechanical locking pin of some sort.
With regard to the hammering on the socket, if you have a nice big 'n ugly black 1" drive socket, go ahead and hammer on the outside of it, it won't care!
Another trick for removing the inners is to get a socket that is the 13/16 square that fits the inner lugs, rather than the combo inner/outer socket. This seems to work good as the socket stays on the inner lugs better.
Yeah, I'd 86 those green things...sell them to Waste Management or someone...if you are concerned, paint the witness marks like you said, after all, you are the one gonna be checking them.