

| Subject: | Re: Anyone use Les Schwab for tires? |
| From: | Chris Mills |
| Date: | Mon, 16 Sep 2002 16:21:12 -0500 |
>So, now rather >pissed I went home (car still vibrating) to investigate the problem myself. >After getting my reefed lug bolts off (impact wrench does wonders to >aluminum rims). I measured out the rims. The bore was 60mm and the hubs >are 57.1mm. I found my original hubcentric adapters pushed all the way into >the bore of the rim. Placing them correctly on the hub and remounting the >rims with a TORQUE WRENCH (something L.S. has never heard of). My vibration >problems went away. I also removed my steering wheel and recentered it >properly. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS take your own torque wrench with you and torque your own lugs. Two reasons - I have seen lugs wrenched down to 150+ lbs and you can't get them off (or worse your wife is stuck alone b/c she can't change the wheel). I have also had the hubs on my Honda and the rims warped b/c the local tire store (was Michael Tire - now Tires Plus) torque the lugs down so tight and unevenly that it warped everything... They have little torque limiter thinga-ma-bobs but either they didn't know how to use them or didn't use them. Now I use a different tire store for initial purchases and often I simply pull the wheels at home and get new tires put on my rims without the car... They don't use the torque limiter things-ma-bobs either but they are always careful to get the lugs tight enough to roll the car outside so I can torque the rims myself. It's a small town and they let me in the shop too so sometimes I get to do it before it gets put on the ground. The one fellow told me he could get it just right "by feel". I measured that rim as getting torqued at 125 ft-lbs versus the 85 that my owner's manual called for. He was also plus or minus 20 ft-lbs on 5 lugs. Do your own torquing!!!!! What do you expect from fellows making $6 an hour? Chris M. <"Busbodger" of "TEAM SLOWPOKE"> Cookeville, Tennessee ICQ# 5944649 scm9985@tntech.edu '78 VW Westfalia (67 HP -> that is...67 Hamster Power) '65 Beetle - Type IV powered '99 CR-V AWD station wagon '81 CB900 Custom moto-chickle 2.5 Corvair engines for my Trans-vair Conversion
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