ClassicCar

Harry Hill wrote:

Who is making left hand thread wheel studs, the NAPA locally says they aren't available any longer but I find that hard to believe. Does anyone know of a source?



Harry

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Yes they are available , I get them from A C Brake , Louisville , Ky --- They are owned by Republic Diesel . Have you got a sample or know EXACTLY what you need ? I think the maker is Belkamp . BUD

mars55 wrote:

Do you know what size you need?

----You will find that bolt size --shoulder length--shoulder size--thread length--- are ALL needed BUD

Geoff C., N.Z. wrote:

Pardon my curiosity, what on earth do you want l.h. thread studs for?

Geoff, I read somewhere once that you should always use LH bolts on the LH side of your Hudson. I do find that they are very hard to get started in the drum, and then you need an ENORMOUS rattle gun to drive them in.



One problem I come across is that the guys at the tyre place tend not to know about LH bolts and wreck the threads trying to get them out.

Dave I don't think they were. I've never seen any"L" lug bolts on any Hudson. On Mopars there are "L" and "R" bolts depending on what side of the car you're working on but I think that was a Mopar exclusive.

I had a car when I was young that had LH lugs on left side- pretty sure it was my '57 Pontiac- and I never owned a Chrysler product in those days.

Just to muddy the water, I had a 49 Super Six in the late 50s that had LH lug bolts on the left side. I've never seen them on another HET product since, and that includes probably 25 covering 30s 40s and 50s that I've either torn apart or have, or have worked on.



That being said, I got in a hurry to test run my 47 Hudson PU and the LH rear bolts were'nt tight. They all walked out within 2 miles and the wheel fell off, not doing the fender any good in the process. Didn't drop too far as the shock hanger only rides 3 or 4 inches off the pavement



The good news was, that the hub cap saved all of them. The bad news was, I was a good mile from home with no jack, wrenches etc.



I have a couple of 62 Jeep trucks that have them, but they are studs and nuts.

Probably 99.99% of cars on the road today have right hand threads. It would be unusal to find a young mechanic today that would know of LH threads. And because there are so few cars on the road with LH threads, even a seasoned mechanic might make a mistake, but he would remember as soon as he tried to remove the wheel, whereas someone not knowing about LH thread may be determinded to get it off the wrong way.



I believe Chrysler engineers had a theory that because the left side wheels turned counter clockwise, it might be good to have LH threaded bolts and studs to hold the left side wheels on. My 40 ply had LH bolts on the left side. Chrysler later went to LH studs and even later again they changed to RH studs like every other car maker. Also, there are a few foreign cars that had LH bolts and threaded studs.



There is no black magic to LH threads. They just hold the wheel onto the car. They are no better and no worse than RH threads.



To prevent a similar problems from happening in the future during tire changes, I WOULD SUGGEST TAKING THE OLD WHEEL STUD AS A SAMPLE AND ASK FOR THE SAME SIZE STUDS WITH RIGHT HAND THREADS. Don't forget to ask for RH threaded nuts to go with the RH studs. I have replace many LH studs with RH studs for two reasons. First, it was getting harder to get LH threaded studs and second, to eliminate the problem you experienced when someone down the road will be changing the wheels.



Just my humble suggestion. Lee

Not real sure, Harry, but I think the answer is not going to be found in an auto supply store, but rather a specialty bolt company, or junkyard (that still has older tenants).

Specialty bolt companies would be my first check. They always seem to have the unusual when I ask, and surprisingly (to me), they're are never very surprised by my unusual requests.

I had to pull the wheel on an Aero Willys the other day. Remember them? Yup, left hand nuts.