Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Time to talk to your nuts?

How tight should your wheel nuts be? My 4/4 Owners Handbook simply says
“Refit the spanner to the nut and strike the lug in correct direction to tighten.”

This tool has been mentioned on TM in the past and I recently bought one for my hub nuts. It is advertised as a “high-quality aluminium special tool.” Part number: 479748.





Here is the link https://www.scparts.co.uk/sc_en/special-tool-1-79772.html

It is a dirty great big 3/4" drive socket for 42 mm octagonal spinners. I bought a ¾” to ½” adapter so I could use it with my big torque wrench. For fitting or removing my stainless wires I have always used the hammer and flat spanner which came with the car but I have become increasingly nervous. So far, I have not hit a wing or wheel but it can only be a matter of time!

I was curious to know what the hammer and spanner had achieved the last time I replaced the wheels, so I marked each wheel nut relative to a spoke. I backed off each nut a bit and found the torque required to get it back to where it was. One nut required 180ftlbs, one 190ftlbs and the other two were off the scale, so greater than 220ftlbs. The hammer and flat spanner are obviously very effective but also it seems all too easy to over do the amount of torque applied.

After some thought I replaced the wheel nuts using 60ftlbs torque, re-marked the nuts and went for a short spin. Back home, I found one nut had tightened itself by about half a centimetre at its circumference, confirming that they really do self tighten! The rest had stayed put. My torque wrench is calibrated in one direction only and I probably forgot to change the head of the wrench over when I changed sides on the car. I increased the torque to 80ftlbs and the nuts have not moved since. It is now much easier to remove the wheel nuts using just a normal breaker bar with the socket and to replace the nuts using a torque wrench. No heroics with hammers or long bars and no danger of body or wheel damage. I may try 70ftlbs next time.

The socket costs £48 inc. VAT and with postage it came to £60.95 which is expensive. However, it is probably much cheaper than body and/or wheel repairs. How much is peace of mind worth? No financial interest etc.