Check your nuts!

[Dirt Sailor]

My ship had a BBQ today in a park near my house. I decided that since the park was so close, I'd drive the bug. It's fine on short trips around town, just not good at higher speeds.

We're driving down the road when we hit a few bumps and suddenly there's a loud bang and I'm looking at the sky and my wife is a little higher in the bug than me. I apply the brakes, but they aren't working all that well. I steer towards a rock pile on the side of the road to stop the bug

and get out just in time to see my left rear tire bouncing across the street.

Luckily no one was hurt and nothing else was damaged. Aparently the gentleman who built the bug didn't put pins in the spindle nuts and one came off. I'm an idiot because I never checked them. Thankfully this happened while I was going 30 mph and not the week before when I was testing my engine.

Went to Kragen and got a new spindle nut, put it on and drove it ever so slowly home.

So make sure (especially you VW owners) that your spindle nuts are torqued to 250lbs and they have a cotter pin locking them in place. My wife and I were very lucky, learn from my mistake!

 

[BRINGTHERUCKUS]

I lost all my lugs on my truck once, the drum just dropped into the rim cuz i was doing a right hand turn, it could of been bad, your lucky! good story

 

[BGRANT]

Had my motorhome wheel on the Dunaway ramp and the 8. Not a good feeling at all.

 

[Dirt Sailor]

HOLY CRAP! At least a bug is small! Thanks, you just made me feel a little better about the whole situation.

 

[Jorge Rodriguez]

I lost all my lugs on my truck once, the drum just dropped into the rim cuz i was doing a right hand turn, it could of been bad, your lucky! good story

exactly the same thing happened to me...shop left the lugs loose...

 

[sidekicker]

i saw few time flew tire off lugs nuts on truck on freway 2 week ago

 

[Perfect Race]

I put brand new tires and wheels on my old Ford F350(myself) and started out to Laughlin one year. It started vibrating before Barstow a little so I thought a weight fell off. I was out between Ludlow and Needles when I saw a couple things fly by my side window. It took a few seconds for the brain to register that they were lug nuts. I slowed and pulled over carefully right in a wide dirt spot where truckers park. I was almost stopped and the wheel came off but the big 4x4 hub landed in the bottom part of the rim, the hub/rotor never touched the ground. I flagged somebody to stop and borrowed their jack. I used a pipe to straighten a few bent studs. I took lugs off the other wheels and was back on the road in about 15 - 20 minutes. VERY lucky, especially since I had 4 55 gallon drums of VP in the bed!

 

[Petepecas]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
my nuts wolda been sore also!!!!!

 

[Jorge Rodriguez]

I put brand new tires and wheels on my old Ford F350(myself) and started out to Laughlin one year. It started vibrating before Barstow a little so I thought a weight fell off. I was out between Ludlow and Needles when I saw a couple things fly by my side window. It took a few seconds for the brain to register that they were lug nuts. I slowed and pulled over carefully right in a wide dirt spot where truckers park. I was almost stopped and the wheel came off but the big 4x4 hub landed in the bottom part of the rim, the hub/rotor never touched the ground. I flagged somebody to stop and borrowed their jack. I used a pipe to straighten a few bent studs. I took lugs off the other wheels and was back on the road in about 15 - 20 minutes. VERY lucky, especially since I had 4 55 gallon drums of VP in the bed!

did you not retighten the lugs after a hundred miles as suggested when running new wheels?

 

[BGRANT]

HOLY CRAP! At least a bug is small! Thanks, you just made me feel a little better about the whole situation.

Ya, it was a dually. The first wheel I was "holy shhet some poor bastard lost his wheel". Right when I realized I was that poor bastard, the other one came off. I pulled over to see a trail of plumbing behind me and one of th ewheels doing mach 10 across the desert. Took about an hour to find that wheel and another couple of hours to muscle some lugs onto the remaing 3 studs that were hammered.

Some dude went flying by my wife and I today in a Suburban with a 2K plus Specializedx mtn bike dangling from his rack. He was going too fast for my wife to catch him and warn him. Few miles later we see a mangled bike on the shoulder with some dude picking up the pieces. The Suburban was no where in sight. The guy probably got home and wondered where the hell his bike went.

 

[DEZERTBOUND]

"Dirt Sailer".....If I were you I would be checking front end / steering also.

 

[Perfect Race]

I worked in a tire shop for years as a kid, of course I didn't recheck my lugs! What happened was I put them on with a new electric impact I wasn't used to. Normally I would torque them or use a air impact that is always too tight. I got lucky and I know better.

 

[Dirt Sailor]

"Dirt Sailer".....If I were you I would be checking front end / steering also.

Yep, I've been thinking the same thing.

Just pulled in today from two and a half weeks underway and have pretty much got my weekend planed out as far as fixing the bug. That's assuming my wife hasn't come up with any honeydo lists while I was gone.

 

[DailyPedal]

Just for info sake...the axle nut was not tightened anywhere near tight enough before (obvious I know) and more than likely, is not tight enough now. Also, I am sure the other side is not tight enough. And to make matters worse, the splines in the drum that drive the car forward are probably now damaged from running loose and may fail again. Get a pair of good brake drums, new axle nuts, extra cotter pins, a hammer tool for the axle nuts, a brake adjuster tool, get a good book, I recommend the "Idiot's guide" if you can find one, and learn the ins and outs of owning a VW before it leaves you on the side of the road again...