DIY Maintenance

Yeah, that left hand thread used to always get me on fans.
No left hand thread here, just a guy that borrowed my breaker bar for a monster nut
that was on a track machine for like 75 years and grew roots.
I would have used the 1" air gun, but he had no way to bring it to me, and he had no big compressor.

I had a UD Rollback in the 90's that had left hand thread on the passenger side lug nuts.
They had "LH" forged into the head - so you knew they were left hand thread.
Boy, that was an over-built truck. Made by Nissan. UD stood for "Ultimate Dependability."
I had a Ford F-450 at the time, and had that up on jack-stands, taken apart down to the spindles.
Was doing a brake job on the UD, and was amazed at how big in diameter the spindles were,
compared to the Ford. The UD looked like tractor trailer spindles, compared to the pencil sized Ford.

 

That's the same Ford Rollback above that a certain Tire chain in Scranton on Rt. 6
over tightened my 8 studs and they broke on rt. 33 near Bartonsville, one went lazily up the bank, the other dually went like a bouncing missile into the grill of an oncoming Durango. 4 grand damage; went back in the road and found the studs and sure enough, you could see they were pulled. Guess the kid was scared they would come off.
They paid all of it, no questions, after I showed them the stretched studs.
This was before they had the color-coded torque stick sockets that prevent over torque.

 

I did that when i was about 14 working on my dads trucks. Broke 2 breaker bars and decided to drag the torches out figuring a little heat would help. That's when he came over to show me what a ####### i was. I forget the exact wording but want something like "hey #######, use your head for more than a hat rat. See that big L stamped on the end of the studs? Dont ya think it's possible it might mean something?"

 

Its amazing what an 8 ft pipe will do ain't it?

 

Once more on the torque multiplier.
This is an under appreciated tool.
I first thought people were talking about a range doubler, an extension put on the end of a torque wrench.
I went on Amazon prime and searched these and found a range of prices; went with the cheapest one,
think I paid $39.00, some were over $100.00 for basically the same thing. It has a foot cast into tool body you put against the next adjacent lug nut or stud. So it has a hand crank that goes over a square drive
that you turn with a short hand crank, for a 50 something to one reduction. Good idea and good tool.
Real powerful, but like anything, I can't leave well enough alone. I took an old 3/4" drive socket that
fits over this tool input shaft, and welded a smaller 1/2" drive socket onto it.
Now my IR air, or my Snap-On cordless gun just blasts the stuck nuts loose in a few seconds.
Hand cranks are for Model T's.