Hub wheel nut thread trouble

[dan_b]

Oh dear
I was just taking my wheels off to clean the brakes out and I have a problem with my front left hub... I did a stud conversion last year after problems with wheel nuts.

It would seem that one of my threads in the hub is in trouble: one of the studs won't engage back in the hub at all: the thread of this particular stud is totally destroyed at the top of the thread so it won't screw in. Essentially my wheel is being held on with only 4 nuts, which doesn't make me very happy.

What can I do? Obviously I'll buy another stud asap, but do you think the hub thread itself is damaged? Is there anything I can do about that other than buying a completely new hub? What's involved in changing a hub?

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Stupid question, but why did you take the stud out of the hub?
Or did it come out with the nut?

You could drill and tap bigger, but then you'd need to make a special stud.

This won't be a lot of help right now, but I was wondering if a better stud conversion would be to fit the press-in type (they have a head and go in the reverse face, with a knurled spigot to prevent rotation). Would require drilling (maybe in the space between the standard holes or maybe drill out the stock thread if a size is available).

Actually, maybe that is a solution? Worth looking out for who makes the press-in type. I know from the days when we did Toyota stuff at work that you can get them for vehicles like Hi Lux trucks. Not sure about thread sizes though.

Good luck!

__MDC__

[Fat Audi 80]

Are you screwing bolts in from the back of the hub or are they just studs inserted in to the hub? Can you not buy an M12 Die and run that down the offending stud? I am not exactly sure how you have done the conversion. but that's my advice!

HTH

Steve.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

I think I'd advise M14!

__MDC__

[Fat Audi 80]

Was guessing!

M14 it is then!

[dan_b]

I was unscrewing the nut and instead of it leaving the stud in the hub, it screwed out with the nut, but made a rather nasty lumpy feeling when it did it. Now it won't screw back in again.

Stud conversion is a long bolt that screws in to the hub from the normal side with a thread that is the same depth as the hub face. It then has a second, longer thread, for the nut to screw down on to. I got them from trackstore.

Basically I think the thread in the hub is damaged - this was from when I was wrongly supplied radius seat nuts instead of 60 degree nuts when I lost a locking wheel nut key and I had problems with the nuts coming undone. When I discovered the problem I did the stud conversion on all the nuts and have had no problems until today.

Is it possible to re-drill the thread in the hub? Who could do that for me? I certainly don't have the tools or expertise to do that myself.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Yep, guessed it must have come out by mistake.

If you redrilled you'd have to go larger, but it might be possible to run a tap through the hole and a die over the stud to clean things up. Have you checked with a bolt in the hub to see if it's the hub that's damaged, or the stud in a nut to see if it's lumpy? Best to be certain before ploughing into unnecessary work!

As the wheel centres on the hub spigot you'll find that as long as the stud work you do is reasonably straight (normal to hub face), the other four studs and the holes in the wheel will keep everything in line.

Check with a bolt in the hub first, you might only need a new stud!

__MDC__

[newsh]

The metal of the hub is pretty sturdy stuff, with luck you just lost some of the metal of the stud and that is now left in the hole, you need to borrow a suitable tap and try cleaning out the thread in the hub, as KK says you may just need a new stud and could maybe use a bolt in the meantime.

[dan_b]

How bad is it to run around on 4 wheel nuts, even for just a few miles?

[newsh]

How bad is it to run around on 4 wheel nuts, even for just a few miles?

Ok for a few miles I would think, dont cane it though

[dan_b]

I'll try and hold off using the car at all until the new studs turn up.

[caterpillar]

take out the hub,and make the double set of hole in it,and make new threds in... and the threds are m14x1,5

[dan_b]

The hub thread is definitely fubarred - I just tried running a new stud in and it won't even engage on the first turn of the thread. B*gger

How easy is it to remove the hub and tap/ re-drill the threads, or should I just get a new hub?

Funny how just when you think the car's been treating you well and running with no problems, it comes along and throws the literal spanner in the works!

[BRY]

Take the hub out and run a tap through from the back. See what you have then.

[dan_b]

ok...