LUG BOLTS, Lost Options

[72914S]

Last night on my way to the local car showoff(pictures next time) I lost a lug bolt ,left side,I know I had retightened them as per the topic earlier this week,95 ft.lbs. Is this a common thing for them to loosen up?One more thing, everytime I use my right turn signal it blows the fuse; any ideas?

[Brad Roberts]

This will sound bad... but... you missed one. I havent lost a lug bolt on any 914 (driving them for 17 years).

It could be that you have the wrong length lug bolts for your car. I see 2.0 alloys in the pics.. but do you have the proper lug bolts ?? The stock steel wheel bolts are unsafe and too short for your Fuchs. This could be causing your problem (I cant tell which ones you have from your pics).


B

[philinjax]

The BK/GR wires that go to the right side, fore and aft, turn signal lamps are shorted somewhere. Could be that one of the lamps is connected backwards (a Brown wire is connected where a BK/GR wire should be) or a BK/GR wire is touching the Brown wire either front or rear.
Phil

[72914S]

I do have the long lug bolts. I must have missed the one that came out. Now I need to run a thread chaser into the hub and redo the threads on the lug. Found the loose wire. Ground wire attached to the `68 Roadrunner side lite. Thanks, BARRY

[Blake]

Lug bolts, eh? I hate lug bolts (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)

Don't you guys replace them with studs and lug nuts? Obviously this is not a concours-kosher mod, but it certainly saves a lifetime of frustration (5 minutes at a time) when swapping rims/tires.

BTW, if you do a lot of wheel/tire swapping (or just pull them frequently for things like brake bleeding, or whatever), buy long studs and then grind off the excess threads and lightly chamfer the ends. This makes it so much easier to shove the wheels on there and provides place for the lug nuts to rest before you tighten them down (it also aligns them properly, if you are using an air gun). Our Grand Am Cup car -- in typical endurance racing form -- has lug nuts that are about two inches longer. We "glue" the lug nuts to the wheels with weatherstrip adhesive and then, when shoving on the wheel, the nuts pop off the rim but remain resting on the ends of the lug studs, ready to be zipped down with the air gun. Works like a charm. Probably a bit excessive for a street car, but a moderate interpretation (say, half an inch or so longer) is not a bad idea on any car, IHMO.

[jnp914]

Blake,

I like the stud idea, always did. Are the studs a common Tweeks/PP item?

[Brad Roberts]

The stud idea is great for our cars, but you have to replace the rear wheel bearings. You cant pull them into the rear hubs without yanking the hubs off the car (which is why you dont see a whole bunch of 914's running around with studs instead of lugs). You also have to drill out the front rotors for the studs.

Blake,

Which Grand Am cup car ?? I know Mike Levitas who runs the Carrera cup cars. We ran a GT3RS Porsche in Grand Am several times this past year.


B