Ditto on the torque stick. I have found that if your air wrench is not
perfectly adjusted then the torque stick may not actually torque properly even
after going over the tightening pattern twice. I have had this happen a couple
of times which was enough for me to only use the torque wrench  on my lug
nuts/studs from now on.

David Clarkson
90 Westy (264,000 mi.)

In a message dated 3/26/2009 7:08:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET writes:

I meant  to say this!  I'm quoting the whole thing because it's
absolutely  true, all of it, so you can read it again if you're not
already fanatic  about this.  One of my nicest experiences at the
local VW dealer was  watching his young Vgon "specialist" torque up
the wheel nuts by hand, in  correct pattern, in steps, with a torque
wrench.  And my invariable  principle whenever a shop has remounted a
wheel for any reason without  following the same procedure (so far N
of one, the local dealer) is to  immediately loosen and retighten them
myself.  They are *always* too  tight, and usually warping things
because they pinned one tight together  right away.  Torque stick --
pfui!  Pleh!   :-p

David

At 06:15 PM 3/26/2009, Ed McLean wrote:
>You can  try cleaning the drum and then reinstall the wheel, torquing the
lug
>nuts to 129 ft-lbs in a star pattern with a torque wrench evenly in  three
>steps.
>
>You have to torque the lugs yourself every  time you have your wheels mounted
>by someone else because you just  can't get any tire shop to do this
>properly.  Never, ever let  anyone mount a wheel "NASCAR style" using an
>impact wrench, even if  they say they will check it with a torque wrench.
>They simply don't  understand that your concern is not that the lugs might be
>too loose  but that you don't want them too tight.  I've had a Volvo  dealer
>service manager argue until he was blue in the face that lugs  were torqued
>properly (to 63 ft-lbs on the Volvo) because his  technician used a "torque
>stick" with his impact wrench.  I then  got him to loosen the lug nuts with
>his expensive SnapOn torque wrench  and and watched his face get redder and
>redder as he found that lug nut  after lug nut required considerably more
>than 150 ft-lbs of torque to  remove, even though they had been tightened
>only minutes earlier.   Improperly torqued wheel lugs can cause pulsing
>brakes and tires that  shimmy.

--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA --  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'89 Po' White Star  "Scamp"

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