Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Through the years there were several theories in lug nut rotation... Did Packard have any such illusuions?

My large Dodge COE hes right and left. My Pontiac does, my MCI does. What can I expect? from theses engineers?

To my memory only Chrysler Corp used LH threads on one side, so the rotation momentum would tend to tighten, not loosen them. The fact that no one else did it says it wasn't really necessary.

We worked on a 48 olds that left hand thread also. My younger brother damn near snapped the lugs on it!

I think I remember a Henry j I once had also had the right and left hand threads as did Studebaker 57 Packards also have them. On a related note when I was younger and worked in a gas station lots of older cars would show up with broken studs from people not knowing or remembering the left and right different threads. I think most had the r and l stamped on the fasteners.

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My 55 olds had left and right hand lug nuts. I remember an under educated ( I'm saying that in a nice way ) Tire changer with his impact wrench screwed the lug nuts almost through the weels on one side because he wasn't as smart as the box the lug nuts came in. The store not only bought me new lug nuts but two wheels as well.

Brings to mind another story about wheels. I woke up to a flat tire one morning and went to put on the spare tire but couldn't get the lug nuts off. The jack handle, with it's lug wrench on one end, would only bend when I leaned on it. The nuts would not budge. Drove on the flat tire back to the store where I bought the tires and watched them remove the nuts with their impact wrench no doubt set to 500+ foot pounds. Found that they, as well as many other lazy shops, do not use a torque wrench when putting the wheels back on the car. I now ask if the shop uses a torque wrench. They don't like my questioning them but they don't get my business unless they do it right.

What if the flat happened 50 miles from nowhere? and yes I now carry a cross lug wrench in the car.

I guess I was thinking lug bolts, not lug nuts. The Chrysler products that I recalled used lug bolts with the "L" or "R" embossed into the head. Seems it was a more popular idea than I thought. And HENRY J of all things; well if they used it, it must have been a sterling idea.

Actually the "self tightening" idea only works on wheels with one center nut/bolt as in real knock off type wheels

Actually the "self tightening" idea only works on wheels with one center nut/bolt

Want to think about that statement a bit further?

"To my memory only Chrysler Corp used LH threads on one side, so the rotation momentum would tend to tighten, not loosen them."

-Flat tire four blocks north of the International Bridge, Laredo, Texas, after having caught the 2:30 AM show at the New Shamrock Club across the river in Nuevo Laredo with a bunch of air traffic controllers from Laredo AFB. 1967 Dodge Polara station wagon. LH threads. 250 lb individual trying to turn wrong way with jack-handle lug wrench. Wrench actually bent, slipping off lug nut, throwing wrench-turner into gutter, cutting three inch gash in forehead - just as Laredo's Finest arrived on scene. One of those moments indellibly etched into my memory in stone.

I've been fairly lucky with flat tires, in a sense. In 45 years of driving I got TWO flats on the 34 Packard. And BOTH occured on the Tappan Zee Bridge, just past the point where the shoulder/breakdown lane ended. And both were on the traffic side - getting the spare out of the fender, getting the metal tire covers off, jacking the car and changing the tire, with my posterior hanging out in the traffic line. Do you think a cop ever showed up?

Nowadays I'd call AAA.