Broke down south of Chicargo.

[johns4104s]

Lost 5 of the 10 rear passenger drive Axel lug studs. I am limping to a tyre/truck stop. They said it could be Monday before they could get MCI studs.
Would any of you guys Know were I can get  5 or 6 Lug studs??

Thanks

John

[Kwajdiver]

Sorry John,  I can't help you, but maybe someone will.  Be safe out there, hang in there, it will get better.  How did you lose the studs?

Bill

[John316]

Sorry, those studs are specialty. Try calling local bus charter lines. That is where we got ours in a pinch.

God bless,

John

[stegey]

Hi  , give me a call 847-561-9188. I am 45 min Nortn of Chicago
           
                                                    Mike

[Gary '79 5C]

Hope you get the studs and get on your way soon,

What took out five studs on one side  ?? Asking just to learn from your unfortunate situation, in case I am sitting on the side of the road south of Chicago someday.

Best of Luck,

Gary

[gumpy]

ABC has a facility in Chicago. I expect they will have them.

If not, call JD at C&J Bus Repair (www.cjbusrepair.com) in MN. He can overnight them to you.

[Nusa]

Depending on the nature of the event, the surviving studs may be damaged. Consider replacing the entire set of 10 to be safe.

[luvrbus]

John, replace all 10 and keep the inside tight this time and you want have that problem,not saying you did it but I have seen when guys changing the hubs and drums put the wrong one on the wrong side causing the nuts not to stay tight and break the studs    Good luck

[Busted Knuckle]

Sorry John,  I can't help you, but maybe someone will.  Be safe out there, hang in there, it will get better.  How did you lose the studs?
Bill

Hope you get the studs and get on your way soon,

What took out five studs on one side  ?? Asking just to learn from your unfortunate situation, in case I am sitting on the side of the road south of Chicago someday.

Best of Luck,

Gary

My guess would be old age & rough roads! (he did just leave Chicago!)
 BK  

Depending on the nature of the event, the surviving studs may be damaged. Consider replacing the entire set of 10 to be safe.

I also agree, I'd replace all 10 !

[Tenor]

Just beware of a man named Leroy Brown!     I hope you get back on the road soon!

Glenn

[Dallas]

I spoke with John this morning, (Hi John), and it was the drive axle we just put a seal in a few weeks ago.
According to him, the holes in the aluminum wheel are wallowed out and he is going to put a steel wheel on to get him home after repair.
IIRC, we couldn't get the lugnuts or the inner nuts off with my impact wrench and had to use his torque multiplier, (12:1), and even then had to use a 2' cheater pipe on it to break them loose.
I mentioned at the time that it was likely that they were stretched and/or fractured and needed to be changed.
John is going home for some personal business that he has to attend to on Monday and will boogie on back to Illinois as soon as that's done.

As a reminder to all.. Watch those guys with the 1" IR impact wrenches at the tire shops... don't let them hammer on the nuts for minutes on end, this is a good way to break them off at the worst possible time. Check the torque yourself if you have a way to do it. 450-500 lbs torque is all that's needed.
Also make certain you have the correct outer lug nuts for the type wheel you have. There IS a difference between steel wheel lugnuts and Aluminum wheel lugnuts!

I'm just glad it didn't happenwhile John was stuck coming through Chicago... That could have been really bad.

[John316]

First off, a correction. I didn't read well, and I thought that your bus was a MCI. A gmc might have different studs, and not be specialty.

I agree about the one inch gun. Don't let them touch your bus with a gun like that.

God bless,

John

[NJT 5573]

Come on John, a 1 inch tire gun is the standard of the industry. Virtually ever tire shop in the world is going to do your tire work with a 1 inch gun. If the RV crowd starts showing up at tire shops across the land and wants them to do our tires with anything else they are going to send us down the road. (Its all they have). I guess you could always get a tire man with an attitude, but its pretty rare to have anyone in the industry hammer on your studs with a good gun, especially with aluminum wheels because the steel nuts will eat the aluminum holes right out.

Part (most) of the issue here is inspection. This is a driver responsibility issue. Everytime I stop I do a walk around inspection, that "includes" looking at all of my lug nuts. DOT requires this of anyone driving commercial equiptment. I don't want to hurt anyone or be at the side of the road broken down, so I have the habit and I follow it through when I haul the family around in the bus just like I would in the truck. I am more safety conscious with the family. I think they are the most precious cargo I ever haul.

We are basically private carriers, we are running commercial equiptment and need to follow the rules set aside for public safety when we drive commercial vehicles even if its for private use. Check your tires every 2 hours or 100 miles is the requirement. If everyone would do their safety checks, they would catch something like this before it became a problem and have the lugs retightened.

If my bus/truck has tire work, its my responsibility to inspect the tires and the lugs before I get into the drivers seat. That responsibility becomes even more important for the next few cycles, because that's when a loose wheel situation will most likely show up.

I am very much against sharing the road with any heavy equiptment that has not had the wheels tightened tightly with a 1 inch tire gun. I have shared my lane with oncomming airborne truck tires and wheels in the past, and have been at accident scenes where innocent people have been killed.

So, its tight as you want for me, (If you destroy the wheel over time, I will replace it). I'll find a way to get them off, but for safety sake, please don't leave them loose, because not everyone does the safety inspections.

Rarely are aluminum wheels retorqued, but I believe the maunfacturer requires it, so we have several issues here and the way to solving this is not by everyone trying to run looser lug nuts.

Crist Trucking has practice CDL tests online for free. cristcdl.com. I strongly urge everyone of you to take all the practice tests at this site including the Haz Mat tests. We all run with the Hazardous equiptment everyday and the more you know about who you are sharing the road with, the better judgements you can make when you are behind the wheel and the safer you can keep your families.

[Dallas]

NJT, That is a very kind obligation you've put yourself under for John. Remember what you said?
So, its tight as you want for me, (If you destroy the wheel over time, I will replace it). I'm really sure he'll appreciate the help.

Yup. I've seen 1" guns in every tire shop I've gone to with my trucks, and yes, NJT, I've also seen the people they hire to operate those guns.
It seems you have a lot of trucks on the road at this time, and no, I never did. my company only had 5 at any one time. However, I always watched my tires being changed and if some reject from the local McDonalds was hammering on my lug nuts with his impact wrench, I would put a stop to it.
Over Torque is as deadly to oncoming traffic as a drunk driver.
Have you ever seen what a truck tire and wheel will do to a car if it comes loose from a truck at 65 mph?
On your walk around, do you actually get down and check the nuts to see if they will turn? Do you use your hand or do you use a socket wrench to check? Lug nuts are known to stick if the threads have been stretched. If they are stretched or bunged up in any way, they won't move when you grab them by hand. There have been any number of times I've seen a broken stud on one of my axles, I've also seen what happens when a wheel breaks around the lugs ... from both sides. I've been the one with the broken wheel and the one that picked up the pieces after a truck/bus tire and wheel have creamed a car.
With steel wheels, it's easy to see if you have a loose lugnut. There will be rust working out from the offending hole. How, Pray tell, do you tell if a lugnut is too tight? Is a visual inspection enough, at least before you find cracks in the wheel or the stud breaks?
Conversely, how do you tell that an aluminum wheel is under or over torqued? with your hand? after 5000 miles? after 5 miles? I submit that you watch the idiots that are actually working on the tire and stop them from doing something really stupid.
More Torque does NOT make safer attachment.
Maybe you should read what Accuride, Bud and the other wheel makers have to say, as well as Euclid,(the makers of your studs), and the vehicle manufacturer.
Telling someone that over torque is not a problem is pretty much as stupid as flying a kite with a copper wire attached to it in a thunderstorm and having the end of the wire in your mouth.

[Dreamscape]

Over torqueing is worse than under. It stetches the bolt and nut to be rendered unsafe. I would take the advice of Dallas and be on the safe side. I would want to know if they are all torqued properly.
I would not rust a gun to give it the proper torque required.

But it's like everything we do, "Do it your way".

Just my 2 cents for whatever it's worth.

Paul